When the Going Gets Tough... (and other “tried and true” phrases)

A while ago I spent some time on a podcast with our lovely host, Danielle Monsch, talking about a multitude of things, most of which had to do with writing. When all was said and done, we’d had plenty of laughs, but she brought up something I needed to address and hadn’t—how to keep going in a publishing world that is often like some of our favorite villains: mean, scary, brutal, and ornery as hell.

When the Going Gets Tough...I find the hope.

I received another rejection last week. True story. It stung. The damn things always do. But lately, I’m finding the hope planted in between the lines. It wasn’t a form letter rejection. There’s one positive thing, the editor took the time to make it personal. The editor liked my voice. There’s a potential fan when the book eventually gets published. She wanted to see what else I had that fit one of her other lines. Hey, she didn’t close the door in my face. Sweet. But what if she had closed that door, you ask? The answer is black and white—if she didn’t like me or my voice, then I obviously wasn’t meant to follow the path to publication through that particular house.  You see, you can always put a positive spin on getting knocked down. Just picking yourself back up is a sign that you have hope buried deep inside of you. So, when the going gets tough, I look for the hope, and find it, no matter how flimsy it seems.

When the Going Gets Tough...I plan the dream.

You want to know another great thing about getting rejections? No, it’s not that it proves you’re trying. You’ve already heard that answer. It’s that you are being given something very valuable—time. Think about this, if your first manuscript was accepted by the first publisher upon whose door you knocked, you might be published, but you’re going to make some BIG mistakes in front of the publishing world. Sure, you might win the publishing lotto and stumble onto or be pushed into bestseller success. It could happen. But while we’re dreaming such lofty dreams, let’s pretend that your new publisher loves you so much they throw in a maid to clean your house, a nanny to play with your kids, a big enough advance so you don’t have to work for five years, and a house on an island in the Caribbean so that you can be inspired by the crashing waves and rattling coconuts while you write your next bestseller.  Ah, that was nice, wasn’t it? Now wake up. So, you got a rejection and some more time, woo-freakin’-hoo, right? Where’s my ruler, hold out your knuckles. Just kidding. In all seriousness, quit whining,  plant your butt in that chair, and get your brain busy planning. You have a dream. If you didn’t, there is no way you would have ever written Chapter One. A rejection for me means I still wasn’t ready, I still have work to do on planning my dream, on building my empire. There is so much to learn in this business, not just craft. When you’re not writing, you should be reading—books on craft, on marketing, on taxes and accounting for authors, on sales, on being an entrepreneur. So, when the going gets tough, I look at my career plan and come up with new ideas of how I’m going to sell the book someday and make enough money to buy that damned island on my own.

When the Going Gets Tough...I drive onward, hell bent for leather.

Let’s make one thing crystal clear—“rejection” is not a synonym for “roadblock.” It means that someone refused to accept your book for whatever reason. It has nothing to do with you or your career.  Repeat these words three times, “This deal was not meant to be.” That’s what I do. These are not just silly words meant to make me feel okay about the rejection. It’s the truth. For whatever reason, a contract with this particular publisher at this particular time was not meant to be. Now, I figure out where to go next—a different publisher/agent, a different book, a secluded monastery? No matter which, I plot a new course, determine the steps needed to get from A to B and on to Z, then drive onward toward that first step, hell bent for leather.  That’s where you’ll find me, on the road, heading for good ol’ Leather, USA.

When the Going Gets Tough...I burrow in deeper like a chigger.

So, that’s how I keep going. I just burrow in, dig deeper, and refuse to give up. I’ve said this many times before, but I’ll say it again. Getting published and staying published is not for the faint of heart. Most authors are scarred heavily by the time they “make it”—whatever  “it” is. In the meantime, my latest rejection has come and gone and I’ve spoken with my agent and we have a whole new game plan about which I’m very excited. So onward I go on the bumpy road to publication, driven by the hopes and dreams that propel me toward that bright star on the horizon. I hope it’s a supernova. ~~~~~ Ann Charles is the co-captain of 1stTurningPoint, a website devoted to helping authors learn promotion, and is currently doing the rounds, hoping to get her mystery/romance novel published.  You can hear Ann and I chatting on Episode 4 of Romantically Speaking.

Tagged as: Craft, Podcast, Rejection, Romantically Speaking Podcast, Writing