Guys, this is by far the best thing since sliced bread…seriously. I have been gathering loads and loads and loads of amazing information, and even had an industry pro give me some feedback on my first 250 words of my novel. Pretty cool.
More importantly, the conference is full of information for your WIP! If you are starting a novel, in the middle of one, or about to start a revision, start looking through some of the archives on writeoncon and get some amazing free information, tips, exercises, template ideas and much much more!
Natalie Fischer (Lit agent), had a great blogging even today about query letters, and it really makes you see how quickly they can spot plot and sellability on your query. Don’t miss that!
Ms. Fischer ended with this…its very inspirational:
Putting Rejection into Perspective
If your manuscript gets rejected, consider the company
you are in when you get rejected by an agent or
publisher who lacks the foresight to see just how
great your work may be. The following list is compiled
from Michael Larsen’s book, “Literary Agents.”
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck was returned fourteen
times, but it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead was rejected
twelve times.
Patrick Dennis said of his autobiographical novel
Auntie Mame, “It circulated for five years through the
halls of fifteen publishers and finally ended up with
Vanguard Press, which, as you can see, is rather deep
into the alphabet.” This illustrates why using the
alphabet may be a logical but ineffective way to find
the best agent or editor.
Twenty publishers felt that Richard Bach’s Jonathan
Livingston Seagull was for the birds.
The first title of Catch-22 was Catch-18, but Simon
and Schuster planned to publish it during the same
season that Doubleday was bringing out Mila 18 by Leon
Uris. When Doubleday complained, Joseph Heller changed
the title. Why 22? Because Simon and Schuster was the
22nd publisher to read it. Catch-22 has become part of
the language and has sold more than 10 million copies.
Mary Higgins Clark was rejected forty times before
selling her first story. One editor wrote: “Your story
is light, slight, and trite.” More than 30 million
copies of her books are now in print.
Before he wrote Roots, Alex Haley had received 200
rejections.
Robert Persig’s classic, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance, couldn’t get started at 121 houses.
John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, was
declined by fifteen publishers and some thirty agents.
His novels have more than 60 million copies in print.
Thirty-three publishers couldn’t digest Chicken Soup
for the Soul, compiled by Jack Canfield and Mark
Victor Hansen, before it became a huge best-seller and
spawned a series.
The Baltimore Sun hailed Naked in Deccan as “a
classic” after it had been rejected over seven years
by 375 publishers.
Dr. Seuss’s first book was rejected twenty-four times.
The sales of his children’s books have soared to 100
million.
Louis L’Amour received 200 rejections before he sold
his first novel. During the last forty years, Bantam
has shipped nearly 200 million of his 112 books,
making him their biggest selling author.
If you visit the House of Happy Walls, Jack London’s
beautiful estate in Sonoma County, north San
Francisco, you will see some of the 600 rejection
slips that London received before selling his first
story. If you want to know how much easier it is to
make it as a writer now than it was in London’s time,
read his wonderful autobiographical novel, Martin
Eden. Your sufferings will pale compared to what poor
Martin endured.
British writer John Creasy received 774 rejections
before selling his first story. He went on to write
564 books, using fourteen names.
Eight years after his novel Steps won the National
Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski permitted a writer to
change his name and the title and send a manuscript of
the novel to thirteen agents and fourteen publishers
to test the plight of new writers. They all rejected
it, including Random House, which had published it.
Every no gets you closer to yes …
