Getting past first base

You may dream of growing a thicker skin and playing baseball as you write.  Developing resilience is useful when you aspire to market creative talent you believe you have.  To sense you have skills worthy of an audience is like developing enough courage to step up to the plate.  You may sense you’re already home, but you still have a way to go to get around to bases that matter.  An idea in your head has value, but it gains significantly more meaning as you learn to promote and distribute it more widely.

The most strategic thing a writer can do is learn to think like an agent or publisher, even get experience in these roles.  Even that doesn’t necessarily get a writer's work into the marketplace.  Nonetheless, it’s important to grasp the culture of an industry if you aim to get your ideas heard in the arena.  Figuring out your prospective audeince is key. Learn to understand why people have turned you down in the past.  This is an effective way to discover what would lead to more positive reception.  Being judged is predictable.  How or why you’re judged are things its advantageous to learn.  A willingness to listen and absorb advice can make or break you.

1) Review the proposal.  Some writers are driven to complete a whole manuscript without marketing a proposal beforehand.  This may intensify the emotional attachment to a work and ignore the benefits of less time it would require to market and adapt an idea.  If you hadn’t written a proposal before, it’s wise to do that and re-assess your outline before devoting time to a bigger project. If you must tell your story, do it in steps.

2) Seek readers and feedback.  Writers are rarely unbiased or completely objective about their work.  It’s also unusual for writers to have insider information into the industry to know what influences market trends and when.   Artistic merit is only one of the criteria that influences what is published and by whom.  The most appropriate critics are thus those who are working in or have worked in the industry you seek to break into.

3) Pay someone to assess your project.  This way, you will get someone to read your work who has knowledge of the industry genre of focus and the feedback will likely be more detailed and targeted.  Experts can often tell rather quickly if you have talent.  Assessments are based on experience.  You pay for expertise, rather than their time. 

4) Don’t naively assume publishers who reject you will offer feedback.  Note that literary agents of rejected books are also not paid advisors.  Imagine yourself in their shoes.  Publishers and agents may both desire to discover promising material, but their financial and other interests aren’t connected to helping people who haven’t yet made it.  

5) Learn professionalism.  This goes beyond physical appearance and self-care.  You need to realize that your view of your talent isn’t enough to sell it.  Gain insight into the marketing side of a publishing agency and learn how material can be exploited for commercial and material gain.  If you don’t take the work and industry seriously, then you’re less likely to have the staying power to realize success. 

6) No rejection is definitive.  How you learn to review, repackage and re-market an initially rejected work can shape a new destiny.  The people in control of promoting successful works would like you to succeed because they would share in the glory.  The more fearlessly you’re prepared to handle and use rejection to your advantage, the less likely you may have to deal with it. Reframe your perception and you’re life will change dramatically. You see what you choose and will get more than you expect.