I caught a thread in one of the forums about getting discouraged and replied that successful writers learn to work through it to get the job done. Thought I'd post an example of my efforts for the non-fiction proposals I'm working on.
I'm currently shopping five different non-fiction proposals, two direct to publishers and three to agents. I've done my home work, have good proposals and know what I'm doing with these. But I'm still getting rejected. Now that's not unusual, other non-fiction work I've done has either been as a collaboration or I mostly stumbled on the perfect work at the perfect time. These are new projects and aren't necessarily easy sells.
The two going direct to publishers are a field I am intimately familiar with and I know the publishers and where they should be placed. I am getting primarily the same rejection, the potential audience is not large enough for their line. I had one who just accepted a similar proposal the month before, and the acquisitions editor even told me mine was likely a better proposal, but they had a contract. A day late and a dollar short. These works are likely going to have to be self-published due to the limited audience (less than 10,000 projected sales).
The three going to agents are outside my past realm of work, and a new direction I'd prefer to go. The market is ripe for these books, there is a viable market and there are publisher's looking for this material. The response from the agents has been that I don't have a big enough, or any, platform to promote these and they can't sell them to publishers without one.
For these I have multiple options. I could hold onto the proposal while I develop a platform, which could take years and lose the opportunity. I could self-publish, knowing the market is there and possibly build enough sales to attract an agent or to bolster the platform. I could shop them to more agents, or even direct to publishers. I could partner with someone who already has a platform and split the project. I could even find a corporate sponsor as a publisher.
The point is, there are plenty of options. I don't need to get discouraged (and can't afford to since I went to full-time writing) just because of the rejections. I could even (and likely will) develop other projects and shop those proposals. The key is not to stop.
I've had what were, in the non-fiction world, run away best sellers and I've had flops. A book I wrote nine years ago and which was out of date eight years ago has only 13 more years of royalties until I earn back the advance. It still nets a few dollars every six months as part of the publisher's library, and I count it as one of my greatest failures in publishing. But I got an advance that netted me almost three bucks an hour, so it wasn't a loss.
This is the life of many non-fiction authors. You learn to keep working, even when there's no reason. At least you aren't writing full books to be rejected.
Gotta go work on my platform.
Jeff
I'm currently shopping five different non-fiction proposals, two direct to publishers and three to agents. I've done my home work, have good proposals and know what I'm doing with these. But I'm still getting rejected. Now that's not unusual, other non-fiction work I've done has either been as a collaboration or I mostly stumbled on the perfect work at the perfect time. These are new projects and aren't necessarily easy sells.
The two going direct to publishers are a field I am intimately familiar with and I know the publishers and where they should be placed. I am getting primarily the same rejection, the potential audience is not large enough for their line. I had one who just accepted a similar proposal the month before, and the acquisitions editor even told me mine was likely a better proposal, but they had a contract. A day late and a dollar short. These works are likely going to have to be self-published due to the limited audience (less than 10,000 projected sales).
The three going to agents are outside my past realm of work, and a new direction I'd prefer to go. The market is ripe for these books, there is a viable market and there are publisher's looking for this material. The response from the agents has been that I don't have a big enough, or any, platform to promote these and they can't sell them to publishers without one.
For these I have multiple options. I could hold onto the proposal while I develop a platform, which could take years and lose the opportunity. I could self-publish, knowing the market is there and possibly build enough sales to attract an agent or to bolster the platform. I could shop them to more agents, or even direct to publishers. I could partner with someone who already has a platform and split the project. I could even find a corporate sponsor as a publisher.
The point is, there are plenty of options. I don't need to get discouraged (and can't afford to since I went to full-time writing) just because of the rejections. I could even (and likely will) develop other projects and shop those proposals. The key is not to stop.
I've had what were, in the non-fiction world, run away best sellers and I've had flops. A book I wrote nine years ago and which was out of date eight years ago has only 13 more years of royalties until I earn back the advance. It still nets a few dollars every six months as part of the publisher's library, and I count it as one of my greatest failures in publishing. But I got an advance that netted me almost three bucks an hour, so it wasn't a loss.
This is the life of many non-fiction authors. You learn to keep working, even when there's no reason. At least you aren't writing full books to be rejected.
Gotta go work on my platform.
Jeff
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