I’ve talked to a lot of young writers recently at school visits and online workshops about the long, hard journey of becoming a pro writer. My story isn’t unique. And there are many who’ve had it easier and many, many, many who’ve had it harder. I’ve seen so many writers get discouraged after just a few rejections. Like 6, 10, 20 even. I’ve seen writers give up the dream of traditional publishing and leap into self pub, thinking it was the only way to become a writer if they were already hearing so much no. (Side note: this isn’t a post to slag of self pub — I’m merely acknowledging the fact that for these writers the dream was trad pub, and maybe they gave up too soon. It may or may not have worked out for them. Who knows?!)
We’ve all seen the hilariously nasty letters that the likes of Hemingway, Dickinson, and Steinbeck received. There is a whole tumblr dedicated to lulzy rejections. But I think that the contemporary writer identifies better with her peers. The people she’s reading and idolizing and even befriending now. Which is why I want to share the stories of some of the other writers out there — the ones who are now agented and published, who made it through. Today I want to hand out a little bit of good juju. I hope you enjoy it.
A.S. King:
I wrote 8 novels over 15 years before I got my first publishing contract.
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