Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Breaking Into Published Writing

General Writing Discussion
#21

I haven’t been published as many times as Ryffnah, but I’ve been a writer for a long time. I got my first rejection when I was a teenager, and I’m now of retirement age and I still get them. Remember that J.K. Rowling got many rejections before getting Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone accepted. Kenneth Grahame was ready to give up on The Wind in the Willows after it was rejected repeatedly. Supposedly it only made it into print because he was friends with Teddy Roosevelt who twisted some editor’s arm. And Grahame was a successfully published author. That book was his LAST, not his first or second. It was so successful that it has remained in print for over a century, while most people have never heard of his other books and essays.

By all means ask for help here in the forums or in the shoutbox if you need it. We’re willing to try as much as we can. There’s no issue with asking for advice or help. There can be an issue when you don’t listen to the advice repeatedly, but you certainly aren’t in that situation.

#22

While I’ve managed to receive acceptances here in the fandom, I’ve yet to make a sell in the mainstream. So I can feel some of that frustration/doubt. Keep at it.

And bare in mind that many times, rejection can happen for things that are unrelated to the quality of your story. It could not fit in the book. The publication received too many submissions. The publication has too many stories dealing with your topic so they don’t want too much of a type of thing. The particular editor could dislike it (but another editor does). A rejection doesn’t mean “this story stinks”.

Also yes, the FWG is a writing community. Ask for beta readers, someone will likely do it.

#23

First up, thanks to everyone for being so supportive and helpful with their comments - I really wasn’t expecting this. Though I’ve been writing for a while, it is only this year that I’ve decided to take the next step up and actually become a real writer - so part of my emotional investment is proving to myself, by getting something into print, that I can actually be a writer, rather than someone who posts stories to online art sites. Needless to say, I find it hard sometimes to maintain a distance from my work.

I appreciate the help and the offers of help too - for a while I’ve been trying to find a writing community to get involved in, and I’m really happy to find that you’re willing to help people get to where you are. =)

So yes, thanks!

#24

Hey, anyone who likes Shakespeare can’t be bad. ;D

#25

You’d think so! Back on my days on dA (when I was very much a terrible writer), I encountered several people who loved Shakespeare, yet pretty much butchered his work. That, and they considered themselves to be the next Bard, which would be an inflated opinion if they even wrote decent poetry. xD

Oh, the internet.

#26

Once I’d racked up enough rejections and got fed up with the 8-9 week waiting period, I self-published my book on Amazon Kindle, and it had fairly good results there, if only because I offered it for free for five days over the Christmas period, when I figured everyone would have their new Kindles and would be browsing for free stuff before paying. I moved about 4,000 copies, but got virtually no review responses, because I guess free books become a lot like free iPhone apps- you collect them with the intent of using them, then forget about them, and then delete them when you’re running out of space. But, one person who did actually read it was the editor of my small-press publishing company, who asked me if I could submit it to them for publication.

I got kinda lucky in that sense, although since then I’ve been hugely inactive (moving to the States from the UK and landing a physically-demanding shift job can do that to you) and haven’t made a great deal of progress. I really want to see some upward movement with my stuff though, because ideally I’d love to make this a living even though I know it’s a lot of hard work to do so.

Getting your name out and getting as many people to see your work as possible is going to be a good start, and taking every rejection as a learning experience to begin honing and narrowing your pitch from a shotgun blast aimed at anyone to a sniper shot targeted to a specific agent/publisher will help too.

#27

As a publisher, one of the things I note is that the guidelines aren’t always followed. So I would suggest making sure the guidelines are read a couple times before submitting. We all miss something, especially me. Other than that, clean up your work of any typo’s and such and submit it. You’ll get a few rejections, but each market is different. It’s simply a part of the business. Though I can tell you stories of some of the angry responses I’ve gotten after I’ve sent out a rejection notice. xD

As a writer, those first few rejections sting a bit, but you end up getting used to them after awhile. Read a few issues of the magazine or anthology to see what they really look for before submitting. Reading older releases they’ve put out can help you get an idea of what the publications angle is at times. Take your work, submit it elsewhere if it’s rejected. There’s no formula to getting published, and probably never will be. Most importantly, be confident in your writing.