Many
years ago, before I ever thought of becoming an author, I was celebrating
Thanksgiving with my friend Jan and her family. Jan’s father was a successful
published author and he told me that his secret to getting published was to
always have something in the mail. He said that it was the only way to make a
living at it. What he meant was that you need to keep trying. If one person
rejects your manuscript, send it to three others; that is if you believe in
your work. That is important so I will say it again, you must believe in your work! With my first book, The
Deep Black Pond, I went through dozens of rejection letters before I got a yes.
As of today I am shopping around two new manuscripts, as well as promoting
my two published books. And even though snail mail is mostly replaced with
e-mail the advice I was given still holds true today, you must always have
something in the mail.
This
week I have been petitioning bookstores to carry my books. That’s right you
have to ask a bookstore to carry your work. Even though my books are on many of the
bookstores web sights and my books are available through those avenues to get
into the brick and mortar stores I have to ask to be considered. Like
submitting work to publishers and agents each bookstore has its own criteria
for how to send the request so it is important to research each and every store
you wish to petition.
Once
you have every thing in the mail the waiting begins. Some publishers and agents
still accept SASE but others simply tell you that if you have not heard from
them in six weeks to four months they are more than likely not interested. That
is the only part of this process that I do not like. I feel that if you have
gone to the trouble and expense of submitting to them the least they could do is
bang out a note that says NO THANKS, but that’s just my opinion. So in addition
to all the other skill sets you must master to become an author patients is an
important one but when you finally get that acceptance letter it makes it all
worthwhile.
Keep
writing and good luck.
