Publishing Frustrations?

[jhpence]

Hi everyone.

I'm a newbie here, but thought I'd try to get a new thread going. Anybody have any particular frustrations in trying to get your work published? Collecting lots of rejections? How do you deal with it? To get things rolling, I'll start us out.

When I was trying to market a young adult novel to the Christian publishers, I received stacks of wonderful, glowing rejection letters that went something like this: "This is great writing. We really love it. Sorry, we're stocked three years in advance on YA material." So what am I supposed to do? Wait three years and submit again?

After a few of those rejections, there were times when I wished someone would just tell me not to quit my day job.

What are your stories?

Jim

 

[ZiSunka]

You gotta get an agent. Most real publishers won't talk to you--they want to talk to your agent. Authors are notoriously hard to deal with, so agents act as the buffer, to help you make good decisions, to help you nogtitiate realistic contracts, etc.

 

[psycmajor]

Which publishers did you contact?

 

[oncewaslost]

i've never tired to publish anything... i'm afraid of rejection.

 

[Blessed-one]

me neither, prolly because i haven't got many Christian writings...
how about "publishing" them online?

 

[ZiSunka]

There is a website that will allow you to post self-copyrighted material which can be accessed by publishers who are searching for a particular type of material.

I'll see if I can find the link and post it here. There is a fee for the service, but I understand that authors and publishers have found each other this way--sort of an online matchmating service, huh?

 

[jhpence]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, everyone. I also have to apologize for not being clearer in my original post. (Lack of clarity--that's great for a writer, isn't it.)

I was trying to start a thread where we could share our own "rejection stories." The incident referred to in my original post happened about six years ago. I ended up going with a royalty paying electronic publisher (Hard Shell Word Factory), and my novel was available through October of last year. I finally decided to take it "out of print," though, after I received a contract from Tyndale on another novel I had written. I hope that I'll be able to market my YA novel to them after my other novel is released.

Jim

 

[ZiSunka]

Cool Stuff!

I can't wait to read it!!

I've never been rejected, although I have had to rewrite some stuff to meet specs.

I take that back, three years ago or so, I wrote a devotional for a denominational magazine, and they rejected it due to length, so I rewrote it, but then they decided not to publish it anyway. They loved it, but felt the content would be too controversial after all. I submitted it to another publication, and they published it, so no loss!

You can read it here: http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6428.

 

[jhpence]

That was a really nice piece. Thanks for letting me see it.

What in the world did the other publication think would be controversial about it?

Jim

 

[ZiSunka]

The images of reaping.

about the end times in a vivid scene of an angel mowing a dying garden: "And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God."

This is not a scene of peace, comfort or growth. It is a terrifying, furious scene of ripping and tearing, of crushing and liquefying some very last meager fruits."

They thought the reaping was too violent. They thought they would get complaints.

 

[oncewaslost]

well... reaping is not always a gentle thing. i find nothing wrong with that.

 

[ZiSunka]

Eh, it's okay that they didn't like it. It ended up with much wider readership in the pub that did pick it up, and I ended up writing 21 more for them, all of which got published. The first journal only wanted one, to go with a special spring theme. So, it's just a case of God providing his best for me, rather than second best.

 

[supermagdalena]

Anyone got any tips for getting published?  I've never tried, but I might soon.

 

[jhpence]

Hi Supermagdalena,

What are you interested in getting published? Poetry, short stories, magazine articles, novels, non-fiction books?

Jim

 

[supermagdalena]

Novel.  I have it written, I just need to edit it.  I'm waiting till God says to get it published, but hopefully soon.

 

[jhpence]

Great! Getting it finished is a major accomplishment!

After you've edited and proofread the manuscript, and you you're ready to market it. Then you'll need to prepare a synopsis. A synopsis should be anywhere from 1-10 double spaced pages and should serve as a selling tool for your novel. The synopsis is the first thing that an agent or editor will look at, and if it doesn't interest them, your chances of selling your manuscript are not good, so make it interesting and compelling.

In the synopsis, you want to hook the editor on your idea, introduce your main characters, summarize your story, and convince the editor (or agent) that your story is "commercial." (That is, that it will make money. Even in Christian publishing, this is a priority). Basically, you should work harder in polishing your synopsis than you did on your novel--it's that important.

Once you've got your synopsis ready, then you need to write a query letter, which is a one page single spaced letter you send to prospective publishers and agents. In the query letter you should provide a very brief summary of your story concept, plus a short intro describing why you are qualified to write it. Send it out to the publishers/agents you want to consider your work. Be sure to always include a self-addressed stamped envelope for their reply. If you don't, you won't hear from them again. It is permissible to send the queries to more than one publisher/agent at a time, provided you state somewhere in the letter that it is a "simultaneous query."

Hopefully, you'll hear back from a few publishers or agents who are interested in looking at your novel. If they are, they will generally request a complete manuscript from a first time author. When you get the request, make sure that your manuscript has been thoroughly proofed, and is as perfect as you can make it. Send it off in a manuscript box, and be sure to include return postage so they can send it back to you if they decide they're not interested. (An alternative is to tell them to discard the manuscript, but with a full-length novel I wouldn't recommend this option.)

Well, those are just a few things to get you started. If you have questions that I haven't addressed, let me know and I'll try my best to answer them.