Over at the latest Glimmer Train bulletin, writer David James Poissant discusses a topic very near and dear to my heart:
Grit. Or maybe you call it persistence. He calls it relentlessness and tenacity.
It goes by a lot of names, but basically it means a few rejections aren’t going to stop you. Or just because you didn’t get your novel published at age 30, you decide you’re all washed up.
Poissant writes:
Perhaps, for some writers, publications and acclaim come easy, but I’m not one of those writers, nor do I know any. No magazine or editor has ever come to my door and knocked and asked if I had a story or novel sitting around that needed publishing. I say this, and you nod. But, you’d be surprised by how often students or beginning writers complain about not being published or about the difficulty of placing work before confessing that they don’t really send their work out, or that they’ll send a story to three or four literary magazines before giving up on it.
In my experience, it’s not the ones with talent who make it. It’s the ones who keep at it, even when things are going horribly wrong.
Get more inspiration over at Glimmer Train’s latest bulletin:
- The Apprentice by Lee Montgomery
- Using The Writer’s Notebook: A Practical Guide by Lisa Catherine Harper
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
Well, said.
Elizabeth Gilbert on her web site gives great advice. She says that it is not the authors job to reject the work. The author should write and then send it to a publisher who employs a person to do that. Just write, just keep sending your stuff out. The writer does not have to worry if the work is good, that is the publisher’s job.
That is a great insight as it sets up a very impersonal system–the writer writes, the publisher publishes. Not being published does not mean failure. Not writing does.
This is very well said and very true. I think writers hear and see those who had some magical pill that made it easy for them and figure “I can do the same thing”. I’ll be the next Stephanie Meyers, who’s novel Twilight was published within three months and she was given a ridiculous advance, or the next E.L. James (who people forget was in the industry on the television side and has a husband who’s in production; so many connections). For the most profound and serious of writers, it does take grit, and belief in your work and your willingness to never give up that makes a writer a true author and one that gets published over and over again……eventually. For me; I’ll take whatever I can get, even if it means I’m writing something for a newspaper or magazine where I’m not getting paid (yet). Because it builds author recognition, brand and gets my name out there. We have to work at writing to be writers. Not worry about how other writers got there. I will never give up until my novel is published and my words are read by the masses!
In 2005, I wrote the first draft of a nonfiction book for young people. Since then, I’ve workshopped it, rewritten it, won a WIP award, submitted (with rejections), researched it more, rewrote it again, submitted it (again with rejections), moved onto other projects, then I discovered a house that seemed just right, submitted it again. And now it’s slated to come out in 2015. That’s 10 years in the making. But I believe it’s a far better book now for all the leaving and coming back to the story.
Wow, Jane, you are really superb – this post is spot-on to a little talk I’m giving next week on getting published, and I emphasise how unknown writers can get some hits under their belt with submitting to the right publication and the right competition. Of course your blog is high on my list of places to get useful and timely information. Keep it coming, please!
Time and time again when student writers ask me “How do I get published” their eyes glaze over when I start to talk about the “work” involved. They want the 1-2-3 list that ends with the TA DA! But I’m sure I was the same way. Don’t we all want the magic sometimes?
Absolutely. I’ve always said if I’m not receiving rejections it’s because I’m not working enough. I have the tenacity of a badger…most days, and in most tasks. I don’t have the badger’s thick skin, but I don’t think that’s a necessity. If you’re sensitive, you just have to give yourself a few minutes or an hour to feel bad and then jump back in there. I like to remember that the worst thing anyone could say is “NO NO NO NOT IF YOU WERE THE LAST PERSON ON EARTH NO! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU EVEN ASKED ME! NO!” And so far, no one has said that. So I’m okay for now 🙂
Timely and bold words and i appreciate the reminder to forge ahead.