Why Rejections Are a Good Thing

I've got plenty of writer-friends on the traditional-publishing path who are going through the soul-sucking process of submitting their books to agents or editors and getting rejections.

What does getting a rejection mean? Is it the end of your writing career before it even began?

Nope, not even close.

The best thing about rejections is that they ensure no one who's not excited and passionate about your work will be in charge of selling it. The only thing worse than no agent is a BAD agent! (or should I say, and agent who isn't your #1 fan!). Same thing with editors!

When we get rejections from a pool of agents or editors, they are actually helping us by weeding out the ones who aren't a good fit for our books. And don't we deserve someone who loves our books? I say, let 'em go! It wouldn't have worked out well anyway if they weren't the right person in the first place. :)

That said, when I sent my second-written novel out for submission to an agent and to Harlequin, I got form rejections from both (this was 2000). I was so completely wounded and emotionally hurt from those rejections that I didn't grow my imaginary balls back for another ten years (when I started submitting again in 2010).

By sending out your work, getting rejections but continuing to go for it, you're already ahead of the game by a long shot. We've never even heard of all of the writers who just give up completely in the face of rejection, as I had done for so long. The ones we do hear about, however, are the authors who just keep on keepin' on. They put the rejections behind them and keep submitting and writing new books.

I always know someone's closer to getting published when the amount of rejections starts picking up -- it means they're really in the game!

Oh, and as a side note, if you are an already-published author, and you found this post because you've gotten a rejection letter despite not being a newbie anymore, I am here to tell you that even published authors get rejections. We're just shielded from them by our agents. I remember in 2011 getting a rejection (and I'd been published since 2010), but when I looked online to see if any published author in the history of the world had every been rejected before, I decided by the lack of evidence, that I was the ONLY one!! 

Obviously this is not true. Published authors just don't want to taint their reputation by publicly saying that they were rejected for something (unless it's in their pre-pub years), so you won't see blog posts about rejection the way you will with writers who aren't yet published. I figured I should add that side-note here so the next time someone Googles it, they'll find out the truth ;)

Best,
Shoshanna

Agent(less)

I first started out in 2010 when Ellora's Cave published Punishing the Art Thief, followed by another bunch of books, including the self-published Overheated, and a Berkley Heat anthology.

I signed with an agent in 2011, and we had a successful run together, with 6 books sold to Simon & Schuster Pocket (The Enslaved Trilogy, and The Pulse Trilogy), and another book sold to Entangled Indulgence (The Tycoon's Convenient Bride...and Baby, coming soon).

Recently (March 2014) I decided to part ways with my agent amicably.

Moving forward from an agent when you have books together is a bit like getting separated when you have kids -- she will still be the agent for those books. We'll still be in contact because of them. And a book that she shopped on my behalf that I'm revising right now is hers if it sells, too.

And that's not a bad thing! My previous agent is a wonderful woman, someone I trust, and I hope we will enjoy continued success together with those 7 (maybe 8!) books we have together.

So, to be clear: I'm not against having an agent. Not at all!

In fact, I think, especially when you have as many irons in the fire as I do, that having an agent is pretty important (even if you continue to self-publish, as I'm doing).

I'm excited (also: nervous) about where my career is going, and I have faith that there is an agency out there that will be a good fit for me in this stage of my career... as I self-publish, as I continue building my traditional publishing career, and as I pursue audiobooks and film rights.

I also want to say thank you, thank you for all of the lovely emails, Tweets, and Facebook messages I got when MAKE ME: Twelve Tales of Dark Desire hit the New York Times and the USA Today Bestseller list! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful readers. 

All my best,
Shoshanna
Sexily *Evers* After... ShoshannaEvers.com

Signed with a Literary Agent!!

March 2014 UPDATE: 
This wonderful agent sold 7 books for me in our three years (including the one I queried her about, to Simon & Schuster Pocket). We have recently parted ways amicably.

Okay, now you can read the post, because it's still relevant if you're interested in how authors get agents ;)

November 2011:
Hello Fellow Writers,

Let me start by saying OMG. OMG.

Okay, so here's what happened.... last month I went to a NJ RWA meeting where they were having a panel of agents and editors talking. The whole thing was fascinating, and I ended up being late to the group buffet lunch that they had going on after.

What's that you say? Irrelevant? No. Here's why. By the time I got downstairs, every table was full, except for one seat next the lovely Courtney Miller-Callihan of Sanford J Greenburger Associates. That's the agency that represents Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code fame. Ya know, no big deal.

So we spent lunch chatting about our toddlers etcetera, and at the end of the day I asked if I could query her. No pitch, just if she wouldn't mind if I emailed her a pitch.

The next day I think she requested the full and followed me on Twitter. (she's @millercallihan if you want to follow her too!)

A few weeks went by, and she @ replied me on Twitter saying she was loving my manuscript and would get back to me ASAP.

I called all my friends and asked what they thought ASAP meant in literary-agent speak. Ten seconds? Ten days? Ten weeks?

Shoshanna Evers and literary agent Courtney Miller-Callihan
of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

A couple weeks later she emailed to set up a time to call, but there was no offer or anything, so I still wasn't sure what that meant. Did it mean she wanted to call and tell me she loved the manuscript but NY would never buy it because it was too gritty/weird, as so many other agents (four) had said?

I told her I'd be signing cover flats at the Ellora's Cave booth at the Book Expo the following day if she wanted to stop by and say hi. Sorry, this story is getting really long, but I'm always interested in how other people got their agent, so that's why I'm telling it like this.

She did, but neither of us had time to chat since she was busy being an agent and I was busy being an author. So when I was done signing, we went and got lunch and talked about the toddlers again and then SHE OFFERED TO REPRESENT MY BOOK!

And that's how it went. I'm thrilled, naturally. The book in question is a post-apocalyptic romance, sort of dystopia meets erotica, and I wrote it during NaNoWriMo.

Squee!

How to Pitch Your Novel

Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I got a lot done - I started the new chapter that I'm going to have to put into "The Movie Star's Very Personal Assistant", plus I worked more on my plot for "Snowed in With a Millionaire", the book I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo starting November 1st. The plotting is going verrry slowly - but I'm worried that if I don't plot the story out to the end that I'll lose steam during NaNoWriMo and not finish writing my novel! Then again, I'm also thinking that maybe if I write my story up to the point where my plotting ends (I have 36 pages of plot right now) that maybe I'll be able to figure out what needs to happen as I write.

Today I will share with you a very informative video from authors Christie Craig and Faye Hughes of WriteWithUs.net. This video is filled with advice for aspiring authors about making the perfect pitch to an editor or agent about your manuscript.



So, to recap:

• Don't think you have to tell every detail
• Talk about your Hero and Heroine's goals.
• Always act professionally
• Be confident in yourself and your work
• Let your passion shine

Today I'm going to work on both my plot for "Snowed in with a Millionaire" and my writing for "The Movie Star's Very Personal Assistant", depending on time - because we are still renovating that upstairs bathroom (a home renovation that takes three times as long as you planned, who woulda guessed? jk) and we're going to a barbeque this afternoon.

Wish me luck, and good luck to you too!
Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers

Why You Shouldn't Self Publish

UPDATE 2014: I wrote this post in 2009, when I was apparently stupid. Since then, I have gone on to have a hybrid career, publishing with several traditional publishers (including Simon & Schuster) while also successfully self-publishing. And Joe Konrath? He's all about self-publishing too, now!

I'm not gonna remove this blog post, because I like having reminders about how much we learn as we go. What I learned is: ignore the advice in this blog post. ;)

2009 (back when I didn't know what I was talking about)
Hello Fellow Writers!

Yesterday I got a lot done. I worked on my plot for the book I will be writing for NaNoWriMo next month. So far I've got 36 pages of plot written, and according to The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, I will need 40 pages of plot for a 50,000 word novel. Of course, I am no where nearly done plotting, so it looks like I will have more plot than suggested. I think that's a good thing. I also added a scene to help explain another scene for my novel "The Movie Star's Very Personal Assistant." All this while helping my hubby renovate the upstairs bathroom.

Now, some of you may wonder why I would put a title like "Why You Shouldn't Self Publish" on my blog when I am self publishing this very blog on the internet! Well, I'm not talking about blogs. I'm talking about people who write novels, and can't find a real agent or a real publisher so they publish it themselves. I found a very good article about this that I wanted to share, from fellow blogger Joe Konrath, a published thriller author. You can click here for the whole article.

IF YOU WROTE A NOVEL

I believe your first order of business is getting a well-respected literary agent. The best way to land an agent is: write a damn good book. After the book is perfect, there are a few ways to find agents.

• Visit writing conferences and conventions and pitch to agents in person
• Read books similar to yours, and find out who reps the author
• Pick up a copy of the Writer's Market
• Visit www.aar-online.org
• Befriend an agented author and beg for an introduction

After getting an agent, she'll want to submit the book to editors at large New York publishing houses. If you get lucky, you'll land a book contract. This is the best-case scenario.

Exception: You Can't Get an Agent

Getting a good agent isn't easy, which is why you should spend as much time as possible honing your craft, improving your writing, learning about narrative structure and the elements of a compelling story. I got rejected over 500 times, but the vast majority of these rejections were for books that were not very good.

Should you self-publish if you can't find an agent? I would say no. If a hundred lit agents all think the book needs work, I'd bet the book needs work, and releasing it into the world isn't going to win you fans or do your career any favors.

So there's the key - if you can't get an agent, then it's because the book isn't good enough to be published. That's why there's a stigma to self publishing - everyone figures that if the book were any good then it wouldn't need to be self published! Whether or not that's true, I wouldn't know. I never read self-published books.

I'm not trying to be mean, just honest. Personally, I'm too scared to even try to get an agent (one rejection letter from an agent and I was done). I hope to change that in the near future. Also, I know this discussion about self publishing is far from over so I will be posting more info about it.

Konrath says another interesting thing:
" There's a word for a writer who never gives up... published."

I like the sound of that! Today I will be working more on my WIP's plot.

Wish me luck and good luck to you too!

Yours Truly,
Shoshanna Evers