The definition of patience is: The capacity, quality, or fact of being patient
Sounds simple enough. Well, I can tell you there is nothing simple about it. Patience is not my strong suite. It is something I have to work very hard to do. But, please trust me, a writer needs to be patient.
Do you think you are ready to send your story to an editor? This is not a swift change of subject. It’s a legitimate question. For if you have not done your homework, all the patience in the world won’t achieve your objective of getting published.
For example, have you studied the market? Thank goodness the Internet makes this far easier than it used to be. I depend on www.Writersmarket.com and because I’m a member of Pennwriters, I often go to their site, www.Pennwriters.org
Next, have you queried the editor? You need to sell not only your story or article, but also yourself before you send your story. Yes, a few markets let you send the manuscript right to them, but many will return it unread if you haven’t approached them first with a query letter, and received a reply from them asking to see your story.
Assuming that has been done don’t wait on pins and needles to hear the fate of your masterpiece. Start multi-tasking. Yes, you heard right. Here’s some ways you can multi-task:
Start research
Writer Franklin Adams once said, "I find a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.
Interview people
Write, write, write
Study markets
I particularly like to spend time reading. I don’t know of any writer who doesn’t also read. However, I know some of the books I read may seem strange, but they do have a way of stimulating my brain cells. Unusual books like: A Kick in the Seat of the Pants By Roger von Oech or Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun by Wess Roberts.
My husband and I have to spend a fair amount of time traveling since most of our children don’t live close to home. Often while we are away we purposely take side trips to find new and interesting places. Not just to see them. I’m also looking for places for my next plots.
Once my husband and I found there was no room for us to stay with our family at a special gathering. Instead of feeling negative about it, we decided to stay at a local B&B and the setting inspired an idea for a novel.
Visit family and friends, but while you are with them listen to their stories. You may be surprised what you find out once you get them talking. More than once I’ve had to change the name to protect the not so innocent, and the writer who told their story.
My friend once told me about a strange dream she had and by the next day I turned it into a story and promised to take her to lunch if it’s ever published. You’ll find it on Gather.com under my story Ultimate Survivor.
Observe people whenever you have a chance. At the mall, a restaurant or church. Watch people at work or play.
After all I’ve just written, did you forget the reason for all of it? If you did, that’s good. The purpose for all of it is to keep you from pacing a rut in your carpet waiting to hear whether your manuscript is accepted or not. At the same time, you’ve used your time wisely.
While you’re doing all those things, it wouldn’t hurt to pitch your next story idea. Write some query letters. If it’s fiction, the usual rule is have it written before you query an editor. For non-fiction, you can query them and give them an estimated time table for completion of the work.
At this point I want to add a few words of advice about building relationships with editors. Don’t suggest something you aren’t ready to write or might not be able to follow through to completion.
Follow guidelines on mailing or e-mailing your query letter and your manuscript. Don’t ever phone an editor unless you know them and they have told you it’s okay. It took me many years before an editor called and left their number on my answering machine. Relationships like that are not built over night. So don’t be presumptuous. Yes, you may know your novel is the greatest thing written since Gone With the Wind and will sell more copies than the Bible and the Farmers Almanac combined, but the editor will never know that if you become a mosquito in his or her ear. Your relationship will be just as dead as that insect and probably just as fast.
As I said, I have worked many years to develop a relationship with some of my editors. In almost twenty years I have only phoned one of them once without being asked. I try my best to respect their busy schedules. After all, part of that schedule is reading my work.
However, there is a point of unreasonable patience. The markets I write for most often do tend to keep stories quite a long time. The fact that I’ve been told I have my own slush pile, that is the pile of stories that have yet to be read, does not change the fact that a story needs to stay in circulation. If it’s lost in a slush pile it isn’t getting published.
My usual policy was to wait two years then resubmit my store elsewhere, but unfortunately that policy had to be revived when the same story was wanted by both editors. I now have stared e-mailing editors after they have had a story for a prolonged period of time. Especially when I hear of a market looking for something that might be a good fit for my story. This seems to be working, and on more than one occasion has caused the first editor to purchase the story rather than give it up.
Just know your editors before you get too bold. And that brings me to the next, and final P in my three P’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment