Monday, August 14, 2006
Bella ponders the issue of How To Deal
I missed the RWA National conference this year (being about 1,000 months pregnant will do that to a girl) and after hearing about some of the workshops and keynote speeches, I'm waiting very impatiently for the conference tapes. Evidently between Christina Dodd's talk about walking the sidewalk of success and Susan Elizabeth Phillips "big mistake! huge" talk there was plenty of inspiration to go around.
The thing is, most writers don't talk about the hard times in their careers. Sure, we know that Stephen King was rejected a bazillion times before he finally sold Carrie and that Sherrilyn Kenyon was told to pack up and go home before she ever sold a Dark Hunter book. But what about the mid-career lulls? What about when you've sold a stack of books and then....the black hole of publishing sucks you in and it's rejection, rejection, rejection?
I find it invaluable to know that incredibly successful writers like SEP, Ms. Dodd, and Barbara Freethy hit huge potholes in their careers. Years in after great sales numbers and big deals where everything stalled. It's hard to believe now that SEP's agent held an auction for her Chicago Stars books and NOBODY CAME!! My lord those are good books, but I digress.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that hopefully the shared wisdom of the stars of our business will help goad us all on to writing and submitting more books and proposals in every stage of our careers, no matter how quickly or slowly they are snapped up.
(Note: I stole the title of this blog from a movie made a couple of years ago from two of Sarah Dessen's books. They're YA, but not particularly young in tone. I highly recommend her books, and the movie too, because Mandy Moore is so cute in it. Love her. Want her to play the heroine of the movie of one of my books one day.)
My question for you is: What's the best inspiration story you've heard from another writer? Please share it with us. I'd love to hear it (and so would many other writers, I suspect)!
;-) Bella Andre
http://www.BellaAndre.com
The thing is, most writers don't talk about the hard times in their careers. Sure, we know that Stephen King was rejected a bazillion times before he finally sold Carrie and that Sherrilyn Kenyon was told to pack up and go home before she ever sold a Dark Hunter book. But what about the mid-career lulls? What about when you've sold a stack of books and then....the black hole of publishing sucks you in and it's rejection, rejection, rejection?
I find it invaluable to know that incredibly successful writers like SEP, Ms. Dodd, and Barbara Freethy hit huge potholes in their careers. Years in after great sales numbers and big deals where everything stalled. It's hard to believe now that SEP's agent held an auction for her Chicago Stars books and NOBODY CAME!! My lord those are good books, but I digress.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that hopefully the shared wisdom of the stars of our business will help goad us all on to writing and submitting more books and proposals in every stage of our careers, no matter how quickly or slowly they are snapped up.
(Note: I stole the title of this blog from a movie made a couple of years ago from two of Sarah Dessen's books. They're YA, but not particularly young in tone. I highly recommend her books, and the movie too, because Mandy Moore is so cute in it. Love her. Want her to play the heroine of the movie of one of my books one day.)
My question for you is: What's the best inspiration story you've heard from another writer? Please share it with us. I'd love to hear it (and so would many other writers, I suspect)!
;-) Bella Andre
http://www.BellaAndre.com
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Thanks for the thought-provoking post, Bella. First, I want to say that talks about "the hard times" and how they were overcome are sometimes more motivating to me than those who report glowing reports of success -- especially when I'm feeling a bit blue about my own career or WIP.
Case in point: At National, I had checked my email and received a rejection letter, which left me bummed. Then, I went to listen to Meg Cabot's wonderful (and it really was a wonderful speech!) keynote on having her books made into Disney movies. Rather than motivating me, it made me depressed because, well, having a movie made from a book I couldn't even sell seemed so far outside of my realm of possibilities (NOTE: I don't often wallow in self-pity but, I am embarrassed to admit, it does happen occasionally).
In answer to your question, since I loved Stephen King's books as a kid, his story is one of the most inspirational to me. About how he, after countless rejections, threw CARRIE in the trash and his wife pulled it out and said she thought he had something and helped him work on it. And, also the part about how his drug problem at the height of his career (he doesn't remember writing Cujo at all!) almost ruined his career and marriage, until his wife went through the garbage, put all his paraphenalia on a tray to show him what he had become, and gave him an ultimatum.
It's inspiring to see the human side of those bigger than me, to see what they have dealt with and the struggles they overcame.
Sorry for the long-winded answer ...
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Case in point: At National, I had checked my email and received a rejection letter, which left me bummed. Then, I went to listen to Meg Cabot's wonderful (and it really was a wonderful speech!) keynote on having her books made into Disney movies. Rather than motivating me, it made me depressed because, well, having a movie made from a book I couldn't even sell seemed so far outside of my realm of possibilities (NOTE: I don't often wallow in self-pity but, I am embarrassed to admit, it does happen occasionally).
In answer to your question, since I loved Stephen King's books as a kid, his story is one of the most inspirational to me. About how he, after countless rejections, threw CARRIE in the trash and his wife pulled it out and said she thought he had something and helped him work on it. And, also the part about how his drug problem at the height of his career (he doesn't remember writing Cujo at all!) almost ruined his career and marriage, until his wife went through the garbage, put all his paraphenalia on a tray to show him what he had become, and gave him an ultimatum.
It's inspiring to see the human side of those bigger than me, to see what they have dealt with and the struggles they overcame.
Sorry for the long-winded answer ...
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