Day -4 and counting

The 2009 NaNoWriMo is just four days away. The official NaNoWriMo site is abuzz with activity. There's a get together at Wendy's not to far from here today in West Plains, Missouri but I won't be able to attend because our car is still not running. Maybe to- day it will be fixed but I don't know but I'm sure that I won't be able to attend even if it is. Maybe I can attend via chat or something? It's a thought. I'll have to check the possibility.

Today I had someone ask me how to get published. I didn't have the heart to tell them that I'm still an unpublished author myself but I did tell them what I did know. I DO KNOW the steps you have to go through to get published with a traditional publishing house. It really hasn't changed in a long time. You write your story, you edit it, you send it to an agent, once you find an agent that will represent you, the agent finds a publisher who will buy it, the agent helps you negotiate the contract with the publisher, You work with an editor to get your book polished for publishing, Then once it's published, you help market the book.

I also didn't mention to this person the rejections along the way. I've been rejected by agents and publishers alike but I'm still peddling my wares! I do hate the word rejection. Rejection says YOU FAILED when in truth, you simply haven't found the right people to work with you or your book isn't quite yet what it needs to be yet. Rejection simply says 'not this one.' or 'not yet ready.' Instead of saying quit, it really is saying 'keep trying.'

Success will never come if we give up. We are guaranteed the risk of rejection every time we try to do anything that is worthwhile. It's a given. Rejection leads to success only if we are able to face the rejection honestly and humbly and brush ourselves off and put ourselves out there again. If we didn't have rejection to face and overcome, we can't grow and any success that doesn't allow us to grow, isn't really success now, is it?