Chronicles of an aspiring author
- By Emily Kieson
- Published Tuesday 6th 2007
Emily Kieson
Emily currently lives in Austin TX and spends most of her time writing and enjoying the weather. She loves to write stories and screenplays for all ages. When she's not writing, Emily is teaching horseback riding, working as a vet tech, or painting.
Rejections are rough. As an author I hope and pray that others will love reading my work as much as I loved writing it. That, however, is not always the case.
I've actually been writing books for a few years and have yet to have one published. Sure, I could go the self-publishing route and call myself a published author, but the idea of handling the marketing and distribution by myself is a bit intimidating. Not to mention there's a stigma that comes with being a self-published author and very few professionals take you seriously. In short, if you self-publish, the world assumes it was because you weren't good enough to fine a "real" publisher.
So here I am. I write primarily children's books, both picture books as well as novels. I illustrate, too. I've actually been writing and illustrating ever since I was very little but pushed aside my aspirations in creativity in lieu of science, my other love, as I entered college. Funny enough, I'm back where I started.
If I were to actually count the number of books I've written, it's probably close to ten or twelve by now. A few novels and many more picture books and short chapter books. I've written the first few pages of countless other stories and have even more ideas that are waiting for development.
Most of the stories I've completed aren't very good and they'll never meet the eyes of an editor or agent. A few, however, have made their rounds. Notably, my middle grade novel, The Frog Treasure, a middle grade, Victorian mystery surrounding the servant girl, Alex, in her race against the evil tenant Mr. Evans to find the treasure hidden inside the mansion Alex's grandfather built. There's my log line, my quick pitch, my 30-second sell.
I've pitched this novel at three national SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and two local conferences. I have rewritten it at least 15 times and have had every possible response to the pages I've submitted for review. Feeling like I polished it, I sent it off into the world of publishing.
Have the publishing gods smiled upon me? Not yet. This process of submitting to both agents and editors is one of the most discouraging trials in my life. Which is why I'm writing a blog about it.
I always hear stories about people who's first
novel made it onto the New York Times Bestsellers List and wonder...was that the first thing they wrote? Was that the first novel they ever submitted? How many rejections did they receive before they got published?
No one ever mentions these things. So I figured I'd chronicle my journey.
I have a stack of rejection letters. A rather large, ever-growing stack. When I first started submitting I thought I could only send query letters to one agent or editor at a time. After about eight months I began sending more and more queries out at a time.
For those of you not yet familiar with the business, query letters are letters that simply state the nature and log line of the project sometimes accompanied by a synopsis or a few pages of the book. If the agent or editor is interested, they ask to see the whole thing. If not, you get a "rejection letter". Most rejection letters are "form" rejection letters, generic letters addressed to "author" or "writer" informing the recipient that the agency or publisher is not interested in the work.
Anyway, so I sent out quite a few queries prior to the death of my hard drive and my original spreadsheet chronicling my submissions. I still have the actual letters, though.
I started my new spreadsheet for manuscript submissions in April of 2007 and have so far accumulated 18 rejections on this spreadsheet alone. There are about twenty editors and agents who have not yet responded. I have probably about 15 rejection letters from the previous database.
Although most of the rejections came from queries, three were from agents or editors that actually asked for and read my finished novel. One out of the original fifteen rejections was from an agent who had also read my entire manuscript.
The first rejections I ever received were probably the most painful. Having received over 50 rejection letters for both my novel and screenplay, I've learned to open mail with a fair amount of cynicism. In the rare cases where an editor or agent (or production company) wants to read my work, I reread it, polish it -if necessary, kiss it and send it on it's way. The rejections for the finished work tend to be the hardest to digest.
I just received a rejection from an agent today, one who read my entire novel. I had hoped, like I always do, that this agent would somehow fall in love with my manuscript and represent me in the publishing world.
However discouraging it may be, I'll continue to submit. In the meantime I'll chronicle this journey.
I've actually been writing books for a few years and have yet to have one published. Sure, I could go the self-publishing route and call myself a published author, but the idea of handling the marketing and distribution by myself is a bit intimidating. Not to mention there's a stigma that comes with being a self-published author and very few professionals take you seriously. In short, if you self-publish, the world assumes it was because you weren't good enough to fine a "real" publisher.
So here I am. I write primarily children's books, both picture books as well as novels. I illustrate, too. I've actually been writing and illustrating ever since I was very little but pushed aside my aspirations in creativity in lieu of science, my other love, as I entered college. Funny enough, I'm back where I started.
If I were to actually count the number of books I've written, it's probably close to ten or twelve by now. A few novels and many more picture books and short chapter books. I've written the first few pages of countless other stories and have even more ideas that are waiting for development.
Most of the stories I've completed aren't very good and they'll never meet the eyes of an editor or agent. A few, however, have made their rounds. Notably, my middle grade novel, The Frog Treasure, a middle grade, Victorian mystery surrounding the servant girl, Alex, in her race against the evil tenant Mr. Evans to find the treasure hidden inside the mansion Alex's grandfather built. There's my log line, my quick pitch, my 30-second sell.
I've pitched this novel at three national SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and two local conferences. I have rewritten it at least 15 times and have had every possible response to the pages I've submitted for review. Feeling like I polished it, I sent it off into the world of publishing.
Have the publishing gods smiled upon me? Not yet. This process of submitting to both agents and editors is one of the most discouraging trials in my life. Which is why I'm writing a blog about it.
I always hear stories about people who's first
No one ever mentions these things. So I figured I'd chronicle my journey.
I have a stack of rejection letters. A rather large, ever-growing stack. When I first started submitting I thought I could only send query letters to one agent or editor at a time. After about eight months I began sending more and more queries out at a time.
For those of you not yet familiar with the business, query letters are letters that simply state the nature and log line of the project sometimes accompanied by a synopsis or a few pages of the book. If the agent or editor is interested, they ask to see the whole thing. If not, you get a "rejection letter". Most rejection letters are "form" rejection letters, generic letters addressed to "author" or "writer" informing the recipient that the agency or publisher is not interested in the work.
Anyway, so I sent out quite a few queries prior to the death of my hard drive and my original spreadsheet chronicling my submissions. I still have the actual letters, though.
I started my new spreadsheet for manuscript submissions in April of 2007 and have so far accumulated 18 rejections on this spreadsheet alone. There are about twenty editors and agents who have not yet responded. I have probably about 15 rejection letters from the previous database.
Although most of the rejections came from queries, three were from agents or editors that actually asked for and read my finished novel. One out of the original fifteen rejections was from an agent who had also read my entire manuscript.
The first rejections I ever received were probably the most painful. Having received over 50 rejection letters for both my novel and screenplay, I've learned to open mail with a fair amount of cynicism. In the rare cases where an editor or agent (or production company) wants to read my work, I reread it, polish it -if necessary, kiss it and send it on it's way. The rejections for the finished work tend to be the hardest to digest.
I just received a rejection from an agent today, one who read my entire novel. I had hoped, like I always do, that this agent would somehow fall in love with my manuscript and represent me in the publishing world.
However discouraging it may be, I'll continue to submit. In the meantime I'll chronicle this journey.
