How I Handle Rejection

by Richard Torregrossa

The book industry is gasping for air. It’s practically on life support. Not good news for writers. It’s harder than ever to get published, but that doesn’t mean much, at least not ultimately. If you’re a writer, you write, and come what may. I’ve published eight books, all with major publishers, and not one of them was easy sailing; it was all uphill. My most recent book, TERMINAL LIFE: A Suited Hero Novel, a mystery crime thriller, racked up many rejections both from literary agents and editors.

But that’s a good thing. First of all, the fact that it was even read by top people in the industry is an accomplishment. More important, if you’re piling up rejection slips that means you’re still in the game, that you haven’t given up, that you’re not a quitter, and that’s a sign of character, that you believe in yourself regardless of what other professionals might think.

Still, rejection stings. I know that. But the best antidote for this is getting back to work. I have a saying above my desk: Process, Not Result. It’s been an enormous help to me because it keeps me focused on the work and not the frills. It reminds me to work harder to develop my craft, to read and re-read, to keep up with industry trends, and not become distracted by the ultimate goal—to become a rich and famous published writer. For me, writing is a joy and I will not let anything or anybody sour a disposition that I regard as a blessing. I write every day, even if I don’t feel like it, and eventually good results come my way. 

I also keep in mind that every writer has dealt with rejection. Gone with the Wind was rejected 38 times, The Great Gatsby 122 times, John Grisham’s first novel 25 times, and on and on. Some of the rejection letters were quite nasty. Zane Gray, who went on to sell 250 million books, received this lovely response from a publisher, “You have no business being a writer and should give up.”

I have many writer friends who are far more talented than I’ll ever be, but they don’t publish much because they’re paralyzed by the fear of rejection. I’ve helped some of them by showing them my rejection letters paired with the published book, its impressive sales, and rave reviews, which is the greatest vindication. So you’ve got to bite the bullet and continue to disseminate your work. The business is subjective and it often takes a huge effort to find likeminded colleagues. 

I just finished my next novel, Where Have All The Good Girls Gone?, about a young man devastated by his wife’s infidelity, forcing him on a journey to regain his dignity, his place in the world,  and the redemptive power of love. My literary agent retired and I am searching for a new one. So far I’ve racked up a few rejection slips. And I couldn’t be more delighted. 

Richard Torregrossa is a journalist whose work has appeared in The Financial Times, Newsday, The New York Post, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle,The Huffington Post, Movieline, Self, Cosmopolitan, Yoga Journal Family Circle, Parents Magazine, The South China Morning Post, Las Vegas Magazine, Desert Living, The Ritz Carlton Magazine, The Modern Gentleman’s blog, and many other online media.  He is the author of eight books, the most recent the acclaimed biography Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style, Foreword by Giorgio Armani, Afterword by Michael Kors.  A first-degree black belt, he is an enthusiastic martial artist who teaches and continues to study a variety of forms, from Kenpo to Jeet Kune Do.  Richard’s expertise in the world of men’s fashion and in the world of martial arts shine in Terminal Life, the first in the Suited Hero series.

Visit Richard at:  http://www.richardtorregrossa.com/

How I Got to Where I Am and What a Crazy Ride It’s Been

by Daniel J. Barrett

I have absolutely no business publishing a book at age 66 but here I am. How did I get here? Is there anything worthy to share with my fellow writers?

I’ve had a varied career over many decades. I was in banking. I worked for an international manufacturer, traveling worldwide as the manager of planning. Marketing said I was the only finance person who spoke English and not finance. I went on to become a financial consultant and grant writer.

I wasn’t any more prepared for writing grants than I was for writing books when I started. Being a grant writer meant reading 10 newspapers a day and keeping current to win financial awards. I made the grants readable so anyone could understand my proposals and their goal--to serve the most at-risk youth. It worked. We won $200 million dollars to help kids. Learning on the job paid off.

Six years ago, I decided that I was tired of television, other than watching baseball, and I started reading books. I’ve read 1,600 books over that time. Why? I wanted to learn what made a great book fun to read. I’ve read over 450 different authors. Were they all good? No, but a publisher thought they were. It was their decision.

Two years ago, I took the plunge and began writing novels. I’ve always learned the hard way, so I transferred my fearlessness in writing grants to my desire to create fiction. What I didn’t know about writing novels now makes me cringe. Did you know you’re not supposed to use semi-colons in fiction? I didn’t. Quotations, punctuation, and contractions became a Berlitz course, and when told to fix something. I did. Being pigheaded and stubborn with my desire to publish actually paid off. Here I am.

Like a present from heaven, Black Opal Books sent me an email and told me that Conch Town Girl had promise. I brought the novel up to publishing standards and they gave me a contract. I revised two other books and received another contract. I have just finished my fourth book in two years and will be sending that in shortly. As soon as Conch Town Girl was released, I had to learn the publishing and marketing side of being an author. All while continuing to write grants full time.

What is the point of this blog? Never give up? Don’t worry what people tell you or think about your writing? Be true to your heart? Stay on course? If you start something, finish it?

I wanted to prove that I could do anything I wanted when I put my mind to it. I can. You can. Anyone can. We teach this to at-risk kids. They don’t get an opportunity to have someone tell them they can be anything they want, at age 15, or at age 66. Colonel Sanders, age 65, started Kentucky Fried Chicken in 1955 and sold it 10 years later to John Y. Brown, Jr., the future Governor of Kentucky. Colonel Harlan David Sanders became a multimillionaire and international icon. You can will your way to success. Just try.

Daniel J. Barrett was born in Rutland, Vermont and has lived his entire life in Troy, New York, ten miles north of Albany. He is a graduate of both Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. with a BS in Finance, and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y, with an MBA in Management. Dan has had a varied career with extensive international experience, traveling worldwide. You may contact him at  www.DanielBarrettAuthor.com.

Julie Chapman grew up in Key Largo, a tenth-generation Conch, raised in the Florida Keys by her grandmother, Tillie, since Julie’s parents were deceased. Then one night Tillie has a car accident and ends up in a coma, leaving Julie and her best friend Joe to wonder if it really was an accident. As Julie and Joe start digging for the truth, they uncover some dark and desperate secrets that can not only cause them a good deal of trouble, but also cost them their lives.

The Company of Strangers

by Robert Pobi 

While we were trying to sell my first novel, my agent talked me into attending a writers conference. Anyone who has spent thirty seconds with me will tell you that I’m not much of a people person. Or team player. Or whatever they’re calling us hermits these days. I’ve just never been in sync with the rest of the folks at the methadone dispenser, as much as I try. But she insisted. Something about my having to get out more. Make new friends. Influence people. You know – same old, same old.   

I’m not going to say that I was dreading it, but the people in my old profession would eat their own children if the sushi joint on the corner closed early, so it’s safe to say I was not expecting much. But I went. And stayed. And was knocked out by the individuals I met.

When writers get together a remarkable thing happens – instead of the drunken egomaniacs one expects, they soften, let their guard down, and become very friendly. I was not prepared for the kindness I found in the writing community. There’s a real sense of solidarity, and a real effort to make new writers feel welcome. I have had some great conversations and made some new friends. Not an easy thing at any point in life. 

But along with the friendships and conversations and booze – did I forget to mention the booze? – there are also a lot of offers to help. You need a forensic dentist? Here’s my card. Looking for a Homicide detective? I was an FBI agent for twenty-one years, will that do? You need to know how fast a Zamboni can go on hot sand? Let me make a call. Writers want to help other writers. It just seems to be something that happens. And it took a while to get used to.  

The rules of being a successful writer are pretty complicated to explain, mostly because there aren’t any. This only sinks in when you meet other writers and find out that each one has his or her own way of doing things and it’s not the same as yours. Staring at the cursor for fifteen hours straight can be very isolating; it takes a special kind of person. But I’ve found others out there. Lots of them. Willing to help. 

Which is pretty suspicious when I think about it.     

Robert Pobi is the international bestselling author of Bloodman, a novel that earned a spot on the 2012 Summer Reading List for O, The Oprah Magazine. It was published in more than a dozen countries and became an international bestseller, garnering comparisons to “Thomas Harris in his prime” by Sarah Weinman of the National Post. Pobi does most of his writing at an isolated cabin in the mountains. The rest of the time he is busy getting speeding tickets. Visit him at:  http://robertpobi.com/
                              
A stifling heat wave rolls into New York City, amplifying the already critical level of tension in the fragile concrete ecosystem. The air tastes of electricity – the negative charge of bad things to come – but everyone hopes it’s just the temperature. Then, on the morning Homicide Detective Alexandra ‘Hemi’ Hemingway finds out she is pregnant, a twisted serial killer makes his debut. And the heat goes up.   

Not for the faint of heart - American Woman is a relentless ride that takes you through the fractured world of a nascent killer.  And you will never feel safe again.   

Secret Agents: How I Solved the Mystery of Representation

By Erec Stebbins

Sometimes, it can feel like Mission Impossible.

My book was formatted on CreateSpace, and my Smashwords formatting was done.  I even had a hokey cover I put together with Photoshop.  

But I felt crushed.  The novel I had believed in and completed remained unread and unloved in the unbridgeable void between the lands of Literary Agents and Debut Authors.  One of the few to respond to my queries actually flamed me, going so far as to disparage the morals of my characters!  I took minimal solace in that I would at least get copies to my friends and family.  

This was two years ago, before the Great Ebook Explosion (GEE!) of 2012. Before Amanda Hocking. Before fifty lamp-shades of soft-porn. No agent meant No Hope. The nascent technology meant at least I didn't have to pay a vanity press.

Getting an agent these days may be debated more than it once was, but as in any complicated business, it is the rare bird that has the skills and time, the connections and savvy, to do it all by his or her one-sies. The ebook revolution is in fact leading to a diversification and proliferation of agents.  So, assuming you want one, what should you do?

I can only give you a single datum, my own aggressive, nerdy, and ultimately successful journey. I was totally green. I had zero connection to writers, publishers, or agents. I didn't know of ITW or AgentFest. I didn't know to look for them.  

I had begun this journey by following the antiquated protocols in guide-books for writers: look up agents that share your interests, follow their submission procedures to a "T" (not a "U" or a "V"), and mail them what they wanted with a SASE ("self addressed stamped envelope" for you of the digital-only generation: it's like email during high net traffic, only slower).  It felt like getting an audience with the Pope.  Petition, young padawan, then wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

When those petitions are either not returned or returned negative, rethink, retry, expand.  The guides were less clear at this stage what to do.  But the process recommended could be measured in geologic time.

After a year of this, I had had enough.  It wasn't working for me, and I'm someone who seeks to make things happen for him, not wait for them to happen to him (which can be good and bad).  

So, I decided to take the fight, or rather, the book, to the agents.  I wrote some scripts to grab emails from agency websites, online agent database webpages, writer message boards, etc. and compile them into a long list.  I got hundreds.  Soon, thousands.  

Many would have no interest or experience with my genre - I didn't care.  If 90% of the agents couldn't bother to respond to my query (that's a fact, ma'am), then I wouldn't bother to limit my queries.

I worked up the best letter I could, included sample chapters pasted at the end (whether they wanted that or not).  I sent thousands of emails out querying my global thriller to children's book agents, romance agents, non-fiction agents, cookbook author reps, you name it.  I even sent some to mystery-thriller agents!  It was a high-information-content, polite and polished carpet-bombing.

And it worked.

Over the course of the next year, several agencies asked for the manuscript.  One agency I likely would not have contacted via the Slow Tortoise Approach was especially keen on the book.  So, a big shout out to Sara and Stephen Camilli for believing as much as I did in The Ragnarök Conspiracy.

What's the moral of the story?  I have no idea.  I'm a scientist by day, and I know anecdotes are the stuff of pseudoscience.  I broke most of the rules and perhaps got lucky despite that. Adopt and adapt my ways at your own risk!

Or perhaps, the rules would have killed my embryonic writing career.  Perhaps, in the cold war like atmosphere of unknown authorhood, spying out the territory, employing the gadgets that you have, can lead to an espionage adventure where you can find those operatives that can open the doors that you need opened.

I actually believe that the moral is persistence, the route less important.  As Churchill emphasized, "Never give in — never, never, never, never!" 

If you hold to that, you'll find your path, and that secret agent.

Author bio

Erec Stebbins is a biomedical researcher in New York who writes political and international thrillers. His debut novel, The Ragnarök Conspiracy, was born of intense feelings and the conflicts engendered by the attacks of September 11. He is in the process of writing a series of thrillers that explore our uneasy bargain between security and liberty. 

Book synopsis of The Ragnarök Conspiracy

The Ragnarök Conspiracy a 2012 thriller by Erec Stebbins about a Western terrorist organization bent on instigating a global war to further its political goals.  A group of FBI and CIA agents work together to uncover and stop their plot.  The novel "turns the traditional terrorist thriller on its head" (Allan Leverone) and has been compared to "a Michael Bay movie written by Aaron Sorkin" (Chris Brookmyre).  The Library Journal encouraged readers to "Fortify your shelf of Armageddon thrillers with this promising newcomer."

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The Review Quandary – or is it a Quagmire?

There was a time when a book review was a scholarly piece. It might analyze structure or parse theme. Contemplative endeavors, the reviewer filtered the words through their own experience, but wrestled with what the author attempted to convey. While I occasionally encounter a thoughtful analysis of a novel, more often authors – or their publicist – parse reviews for the perfect sound bite in order to create a marketing piece.

Purchased reviews—marketing bits—have been around since storytelling moved from oral to written form, but recent articles have reacted to the discovery as if it were major news. Amazon’s bots have jumped on the issue and with programming known only to them are combing online reviews for (paraphrasing here) reviewers with a financial interest in the product. No one was sure if there was an implied payment arrangement or simply a lot of back-scratching going on.

Do reviews matter? Do they influence your buying patterns?

 

When I shop in a bookstore or wander the mystery section in the library, a title, a cover, a favorite author makes me pause and read the jacket blurb. If the blurb strikes my interest, perhaps that’s sufficient but sometimes I’ll read the first page, especially if the author is a new “find.” But I never read the cover quotes or page(s) of review extracts.

Online, I find browsing difficult. Not to pick on Amazon, but clicking on the mystery section tends to bring up the usual suspects. Once I drill down into new-to-me author territory, reviews actually start to matter. It’s fairly easy to dismiss the best-friend hyperbole (it’s the best book ever!) and the trolls (1-star, no text). But I notice whether a book has been reviewed.

 

What about you? What’s your impression of reviews in general? Amazon’s new policy? Their impact on your buying patterns?

Assuming an identity

I don’t belong here. 

Everywhere I go, there’s a little devil on my shoulder that says: you don’t belong here. It’s been there for as long as I can remember. It is gentle but firm. It says, you don’t quite fit in. Or, you’re not really welcome. At work it says: you’re not smart enough, how did you get this job? At the gym it says: you’re not man enough, and everyone is staring at you. At a party: you’re not cool enough, and what the hell are you wearing? At the beach: you look like a pale piece of spaghetti in swimming trunks. At family gatherings, who let you in? 

I’m actually thinking it wouldn’t be a bad idea to expressly stipulate in my will and testament that the phrase “I don’t belong here” be inscribed on my tombstone. The feeling is such an integral part of who I am that I can’t help but think it’s embedded in my genetic profile — innate and codified in every living cell in my body. 

I know that sounds a little crazy, but I do have proof: my mother.

My mother, Blaize Clement, was the well-loved author of the popular Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series published by St. Martin’s/Minotaur. Her first full-length mystery, Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter, appeared in bookstores in January of 2005. It was an instant favorite among readers and critics alike. Every year there followed another installment in the series, with more and more loyal readers, more rave reviews, and more glowing letters from fans. Everywhere Blaize went, she impressed people with her confidence and poise, but only her best friends knew that there was a side of her that felt like a perpetual outsider, always observing from a distance, never quite fitting in. It was this funny mix of characteristics that I think made her a keen observer of life and an excellent writer. She died of cancer in July of 2011, so we’ll never know to what literary heights she might have flown had she been given more time, but I’m pretty sure that no matter what, she would always have felt like the odd man out. Like a pretender. Like she didn’t belong. 

Which brings me to here and now. Shortly before my mother passed away, her friend and editor at St. Martin’s Press, Marcia Markland, called with a question: would I be interested in continuing the Dixie Hemingway mysteries? I was mortified. My mother was ecstatic. Dixie lives on. Now, a little more than a year later, here I am with an agent, a publishing contract, and a new book out in July of 2013, writing about what it’s been like to step blindly into the world of mystery-writing and pick up where my mother left off. It’s been an amazing, humbling, and life-changing ride, but do you see how I might feel like I don’t belong here? 

People most often want to know if it’s been hard to recreate my mother’s voice and style. Usually I say it’s been as easy as pie, but in all honesty that’s only partly true. I hear my mother’s voice all day long. I hear the cadence of her conversation, her mild southern accent, her slightly irreverent humor, her stubbornness, her wit, her laugh. She poured herself into her books and, most notably, into the character of Dixie Hemingway, and since the books are written entirely from Dixie’s point of view all I have to do is transcribe that voice down on paper and my work is mostly done. The difficulty has been that I feel like a trespasser in the world my mother created, a cat-burglar in the House of Dixie, snooping about and touching things that aren’t mine. I know how fiercely and passionately my mother loved Dixie and her family of characters, but I also know that I can’t do them justice if I don’t make them fully mine.

Last month, I was lucky enough to attend Bouchercon, the annual conference for fans, authors, agents, booksellers and publishers of mystery fiction. For most of the first day, I beat a straight path through the hallways. I brooked the crowds with purpose. I walked from ballroom to conference room and back again without lingering too long, lest anyone think I didn’t know what I was doing. I even wore my black-framed nerd glasses so I’d look like a real writer. Turns out, I was wasting my time. I can’t imagine a more generous and supportive group of people. Everyone I met went out of their way to make me feel welcome, from writers to fans, bloggers to bookstore owners, and publicists to librarians. I made friends I’m sure I’ll have for the rest of my life. And whenever I worked up enough courage to admit that I felt like I didn’t quite fit in, I always got the same response: “Oh yeah. Me too.”

John Clement spends his time between New York City and Sarasota, Florida. The next book in the Dixie Hemingway Series, The Cat Sitter's Cradle, will be out in July, 2013.