Pumped up for PitchWars!

I'm so excited to be serving as a co-mentor with the amazing Laura Shovan in this round of PitchWars. You can view all the details of our preferences and interests on her blog. The big day is almost here:  It's down to hours before we'll be open for submissions.  It's going to be interesting to be on the other "side" of things.

I know what it's like to get the email requesting more material. 

I also know what it's like to receive rejection letters.  Lots of them.

I have numerous blog posts about my query journey and then my submission story.  Both requires patience and perseverance. Thankfully, my alter ego is "Tenacious T" because I sure didn't get through this process because of my patience.

Here are a few things to remember (and hey you can use this for more things than PitchWars!)

• It's not personal.  

It may FEEL personal.  All rejection feels personal, but unless only one person submits to my partner and me, we will have to choose only one mentee.  In our case, we'll also be negotiating two potentially different opinions. We may be equally devastated to walk away from a manuscript and/or author.

• You are not a failure.

I know people have said this like a million times over, but seriously, you wrote a manuscript.  You're doing great.  If you don't get selected as a mentee, the journey doesn't end.  I didn't.  And less than six months later, I had an agent.  

• It isn't luck.

I put this in here because sometimes when we face rejection we try to come up with reasons why we didn't succeed, justifications. I often hear people talk about how someone just got lucky.  In the world of book publishing, that's pretty rare.  It's because of the work put in; not just any work, the right work.  I have manuscripts I'm still revising after like seven years because they simply aren't ready.  

• Relationships are good.

This is another thing I hear a lot--it's about who you know.  A little.  Sure.  It can help.  Relationships are especially good at helping you figure stuff out and finding good critique partners. 

• But the writing comes first.

Polish that manuscript!


Good luck!  Team TLC cannot wait to read those submissions!

Patience

Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. 

~Harriet Tubman

Yes, I am a dreamer, and I can totally see myself in Tubman's quotation.  Strength and passion might as well be my hyphenated middle name. Here I go off to change the world. Wait. There was something else?  Patience.  Oh crud. Me and patience?  No so much.

I'm sure there are dreamers who are good at that waiting thing, but I'm not one of them.  I'm more likely to attack the situation.  I also tend to want pretty fast results, and if they don't come, I may get bored and move on.  I realize it's a fundamental flaw.

This morning Elana Johnson's blog that talked about failure, and one of the things she said in failure we learn our weaknesses.  I loved that sentiment.  I tend to think I'm pretty good about figuring out my weaknesses but my lack of patience means I usually either barrel through them or find ways around them rather than taking the time to fix them. (No, I'm not just talking about writing.)A friend of mine began to query her novel.  The requests poured in.  I believe she ended up with a forty percent rate of request for her manuscript.  The agents commented on the strength of her writing.  I might have taken that as a sign to mass mail my query to every agent in the querytracker database, but she did not.  In fact, she stopped querying altogether so she could embark on a substantial revision she believes will make the book better.  Yes, she wants to publish, but she has the patience to wait until her novel is exactly where it needs to be.

Insecure Writer's Post: Is it done yet?

Once in a while, I have to run out while something is cooking or baking.  I will ask my husband to take it out when it's done.  "How will I know?" He'll ask. Then, I have to figure out how to describe something that is often subjective.

• It's exactly golden brown. 
• It springs back to the touch.

• It's crispy just around the edges.

There's a lot of pressure in knowing when something is ready. You can hover around the stove, opening the door every few seconds, maybe even pulling the meal out when it's just a little underdone.  Or maybe you take a laissez faire approach and until someone asks, "What's that smell?"  

On being a reject

Rejection sucks. Not a particularly new or profound thought, I know, but it’s been on my mind a lot lately. The query process is filled with exceptional highs and lows. From what I’ve read, I’m pretty sure it only gets worse from here.  Some weeks are great—requests for manuscripts and positive feedback give me hope that it’s possible to achieve my goals.  Unfortunately, for every good week, a bad one follows when I am certain I’m wasting my time on writing altogether. I had a particularly disappointing week rejection recently, and I'm still rebuilding confidence.

Rejection and I are old friends.  A person would have to be in cave far away from civilization to get to be my age without facing esteem-crushing blows from multiple fronts.  I’ll probably never get over not being selected as an R.A. in college. Unfortunately, practice doesn’t always make perfect.  Then again, maybe it is possible to become an expert at rejection.

One of my summer session public speaking students reminded me that there are plenty of examples of highly successful people who have faced rejection.  In her speech, she cited the famous case of the Beatles’ Decca audition, which they were ultimately refused because guitar bands were losing steam. Here's one of the songs they played during that audition.

I also follow the blog, “One Hundred Rejections” which provides stories of famous authors who’ve been rejected and quotes advice from many of them.

I try to draw inspiration from these stories—not that I’m reveling in the failure of others, but is a reminder about the power of perseverance. Perhaps, more importantly, I remind myself that I may never be like Stephen King or Kathryn Stockett (The Help).  My rejections may not lead to success, and while that’s not a pleasant thought, all the clichés are definitely true. Any hope of success begins with putting yourself out there.

So, no, this week’s post is not a new message, but sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly beat up by the process or by life in general, it’s a reminder I need.  At least I’m still here risking, learning, changing.

Inspire me.  Name a time you were rejected and it stuck with you.  How long did it take you to "get over it?"