Some Thoughts on Publishing and Rejection

Today as I was doing first page critiques on Wattpad, I ran across a message from a follower of mine asking how I deal with the constant threat and reality of rejection as a writer. My response to her got a bit longer than the standard e-mail, and I think it's got some points that other people will find interesting as well, so I'm going to share it here.

My response below. Thanks to @fairyfree on Wattpad for the question. :-)

As for your question: Yes, rejection is common and brutal. And I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt. Despite having put twelve years into this, holding a college degree in creative writing, and working as an editor, I've had people talk to me like I first picked up a pen yesterday. Some of them have the best of intentions, and some of them don't. Either way, it still hurts. 

For me, that's harder to deal with than rejection. Rejection can happen for so, so many more reasons than bad writing. It can be because a publisher already has too many books like the one you're submitting, or because the editor dislikes something about your writing that another editor might love, or simply because they were tired and grumpy and not in a mood to cut you any slack when they were reading your submission.

Publishing is an incredibly subjective business. Every piece of writing has an audience, and just because something isn't likely to be commercially successful (Soulwoven, for instance), doesn't mean it's not good. But publishers are businesses, and they can't afford to acquire things they don't think will be commercially successful, so not everything gets acquired. 

So don't despair over rejection. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad writer or that you're doing anything wrong (though I certainly had bad novels of mine rightfully rejected early in my career). In the end, if you're writing books that you're proud of, you're winning, period. Readers are a remarkably varied and forgiving group of people, and if you love your work, someone else out there will too, even if it's not a publisher.

Happy Saturday, folks. Everyone is out of town today, so I'm working through the weekend. Wish me luck. :-)

News for the Week of 2.22.13: Soulwoven's Rebirth, More Crit Sessions, and Lots of General Excitement

Hello, Friends and Readers!

It’s been an exciting week for me. In my day job, I’m deliriously happy about a couple of projects with amazing authors that are coming my way, one of whom is already a star in his own right and one of whom I expect will be soon.

More importantly, things have been clipping along with my books! My first-page critique session last Saturday was a smashing success, and interest in Soulwoven has positively skyrocketed since I did it. I can’t tell you how gratifying that is to me. Almost 2,500 people have read the book in its entirety on Wattpad. That’s solid, midlist-level success, and it’s only the beginning!

Also, I’ve finally cracked the egg on Soulwoven: Exile, the second book in the series. I’ve been experimenting with outlining the story, which is something I didn’t try for the first book, and it’s really helping me wrap my head around things. The beginning still needs work, which is why it isn’t up yet, but the middle is in solid shape and I have a good feeling about the end. I’ve reworked the first chapter into a shape I’m happy with, and I’ll aim to put it up in the next few weeks.

And Nadya is almost ready for line editing! It’s seen additional attention on Wattpad this week as well, so I’m going to put up the second chapter. I’m extremely excited to finish up work on it and get it out into the hands of agents. I think it’s going to sell, which is a feeling I never really had about Soulwoven.

I’m still waiting for copy edits on Three Dances (I was promised them a week ago) and have decided that if they don’t come in by tomorrow, I’m just going to forego them and do my best to copy edit the book on my own. It’s hard to copy edit your own work, but I’ve done it professionally, and I’ve reached the point where I just want to get this monkey in the air.

So lots of exciting things! I’ll be doing first-page critiques tomorrow (Saturday 2/23) at 1 p.m. EST. As usual, I’ll reserve the first two spots for followers, so if you’re interested, send me a private message linking me to the story you’d like critiqued.

Happy winter, dear friends. There’s snow on the ground, and it makes me feel that all is right with the world.

-Jeff

News for the Week of 2.14.13: Valentine's Day is Cruel, Upcoming Critique Session, and Wispy Hints of Secret Projects

Hello, Dear Friends and Readers!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope this February 14^th finds you well. It’s always a strange time of year to me, when a segment of the population that’s happy and in love celebrates, and everyone else either fakes it or, well…doesn’t. Next year I think I’ll try to write something for it, because it sucks when a day seems designed just to point out a thing you don’t have, and stories are good at riposting those types of days.

For me, anyway.

Anyhoo, another week has flown by! The interminable wait for copy edits on Three Dances lingers on, but in other news, I’ve finally hiked up my skirts and thrown on my galoshes and waded into revisions on book two of Soulwoven. The first chapter was a doozy. The second chapter was much easier. And I think I’m getting back into the swing of that world again, which makes me happy and causes me to feel more like a writer and less like an impostor, all of which are good things.

Soulwoven itself is in a bit of a doldrums, reading wise. I am of two minds about whether to try to stir up more interest in it on Wattpad or just to keep writing and trust that its readers will find their way to it over time, one way or another. There is one more Wattpad project I’d like to do in conjunction with it, but I’m not sure it quite has the audience to support it yet.

Also! I’m going to do another first-page critique session on Wattpad this Saturday morning, at 1:00 p.m. EST. It will run for about an hour or so. I’ll give the first two spots to my followers this time around, so if you’re interested, follow me on Wattpad, send a message to my inbox and let me know.

In the meantime, I’ve written an outline for Nadya and continue to make tweaks to it. It’s very close to going into line edits, which means it’s very close to going out on submission, which is very exciting.

Anyway, a fine day to all of you. I am thinking of you and wishing you warm happy moments. I trust that they will come to you sometime, no matter who or where you are.

-Jeff

News for the Week of 2.6.13: Copy edits, EXTREME months, and Strange-but-Common Fears

Greetings, Friends and Readers!

Welcome to February! I hope it’s treating you well, and that it is neither excessively hot and sunny nor excessively cold and dark in your part of the world (February is a month of extremes, I think). It’s been another fairly quiet week for me and my writing.

The first chapter of Nadya met with middling success on Wattpad, catapulting briefly into the top #100 in its categories and then disappearing from them entirely. This neither surprises nor dismays me; it simply reinforces to me that I do not understand how Wattpad’s rankings systems work, and that I am rubbish at capitalizing on them.

Soulwoven, meanwhile, has crossed the 150,000 reads mark, and I have at long last put up the Aleani Language Primer. For those of you who are interested, it can be found at the very end of the book, and it will allow you to translate every Aleani phrase in the book into English if you so choose.

More exciting news is afoot with Three Dances. I spoke with my copy editor, and the book will be returned in edited form to me this week. This. Is. Exciting. Because once it’s come back to me, I’m literally only about two snafus in page design away from having it ready for publication. And once it’s ready for publication all kinds of exciting things can happen, the most exciting of which is that it will be published and available for human consumption by whichever humans choose to consume it.

I hope some of you will be among them.

That’s about all, for now. I am going to begin work on overhauling Soulwoven: Exile tonight. It frightens me, because it matters to me, and because I am afraid of somehow hurting it when I go back in to fix it up and make it better. This fear, so far as I can tell, is a good and normal thing.

But I still hope that at some point, it goes away.

All best as always, friends and readers, and happy month of extremes.

-Jeff

Two Newsletters for the Price of One, Because I Am Forgetful

Weeeell, I forgot to put last week's newsletter up on the blog at all. Oops! News for the weeks of 1.24 and 1.30.13 to follow.

Please forgive. :-)

News for the Week of 1.24.13: Nadya, Three Dances, Webhouse, and Twitter

Greetings friends and readers!

So many exciting things to talk about I wonder if I can possibly keep this short. But here goes!

First off: Nadya is about to head off to my early readers! I’ve also got a hand-drawn cover mockup ready for Wattpad, so as soon as I get enough positive feedback to be reasonably certain I’m not going to change the first chapter drastically, it’ll be up for you to read. I’m all abuzz, because I think you’re going to love it.

Second: Three Dances is moving along splendidly! I’ve got all the artwork finished, and I’ve been working on page design for the e-book version. It’s. Going. To. Be. AWESOME! I can’t believe how well some of my experiments are turning out. It’s nothing like Soulwoven or Nadya---it’s a weirder, harder book for an older audience---but I’m incredibly proud of it, and I can’t wait for it to go out into the world. I’ve targeted March 1 for a release date (admittedly, it’s an aggressive target, and one I may miss), which means I may start putting stories from it up on Wattpad as soon as next week!

Thirdly: I’m having great fun as an editor these days. Last week I did a Twitter chat with some of the people I work with at Carina Press, and it was an absolute blast. We’re doing another one at the end of the month (1/31) from 2pm to 3pm EST using the hashtag #carinachat. If you’re on Twitter, come by and ask us questions! It’s a great way to get answers about publishing straight from the horses’ mouths.

Fourthly: My website is ready! After months of cobbling and tinkering with it in my spare time, I’m finally confident that it’s not going to spring a leak and sink into the Internet’s harbor, so it’s time to launch it. You can check it out at www.jeff-seymour.com.

And oh yeah! Soulwoven continues to roll along and pick up new reads, votes, and fans. We’re up to nearly 140,000 reads already. I promise the Aleani language primer soon. And when it hits 200,000, I’ll post one for the Sh’ma.

Thanks for reading, loving, and believing.

-Jeff

New for the Week of 1.30.13: Quiescence, Nadya is Scary, and More Twitter

Greetings Friends and Readers!

It’s been a fairly quiet week. Mostly I’ve been fielding feedback on Nadya as it comes in (so far it’s 4/4 on being reported unputdownable), tweaking things on it, and fiddling with some short stories. I’d like to put the first chapter up for you soon.

In fact, I think I’ll do it tonight, as soon as I’m done writing this newsletter. The only reason I haven’t quite yet is that, frankly, I’ve heard such good things about it so far that I’ve become afraid of it. And that’s not a good reason to do or not to do anything, really.

Soulwoven is still quietly doing its thing. Interestingly, it’s been picking up fewer reads this week but more votes and comments than usual. I’m not sure what to make of that. A few weeks back there was a giant one-day spike in reads that I’m more inclined to attribute to some sort of reckoning in Wattpad’s system than anything else. So I’m wondering if it Wattpad might be on the blink again somehow. Bonus content still on the way. Sequel still on my to-revise list.

I whiffed on my call with my copy editor and now have to try to get ahold of her again before I can move forward on Three Dances, so that’s on hold for the moment as well, to my great frustration.

All in all a quiet week, I suppose. I’m not sure how it’s gotten to be Wednesday night already.

One final thing: tomorrow I’ll be doing an editor chat with the Carina Press on Twitter again. The topic is submissions, and we’ll be taking questions on the hashtag #CarinaChat from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST. The last one we did was a lot of fun, so if you’re a Twitterer and you have any questions about the submitting to a publisher, come on over and ask away!

Thanks as always for all your support. I hope you enjoy Nadya, and I look forward very much to hearing what you think of her. :-)

-Jeff

News for the Week of 1.15.13: Montana, Nadya, and Many Reads

Greetings, Friends and Readers!

I am overdue for a newsletter. I hope you’ll forgive me. New and interesting things have been happening on several fronts. Work on Nadya continues. Its second draft (which I call the Cass draft, in honor of the wonderful woman to whom it is read during this stage of drafting) is nearly finished. I have had no luck whatsoever in finding cover artwork for it, which means I may soon have to resort to doing something for it myself---always a risky proposition.

Speaking of artwork, Three Dances is still stuck at the copy editing stage. I may soon employ drastic measures to get it finished.

And Soulwoven has been clipping along fantastically! You all, with your votes and your reads and your comments, are doing amazing things with it. I’ve been busy with other projects (mostly work and/or life-related, to be honest), and in my relative absence it has been flying. It crossed 100,000 reads on Christmas day. Three short weeks later, it has crossed 126,000. Nearly 1,700 people have read it in its entirety.

I am awed and humbled. Thank you for your support.

I spent the weekend in Montana, where Cass investigated a graduate program that involves placing GPS equipment on 6,000-meter peaks in Central Asia, and I investigated several varieties of beer, a mountain, the local bus system, and other sundries.

It was fun.

Soulwoven bonus content to come soon. It’s long overdue, and I am remiss in not posting it.

Love in the time of cold snap,

Jeff

News for the Week of 1.3.13: Soulwoven Crosses Six Figures, Incoming Red-Headed Sass Bomb, and an Interview to Check Out

Greetings, friends and readers!

Thanks for bearing with me while I took the holidays off. I’m happy to share that my head is feeling mostly better, and I’m writing again. It feels GREAT to be back behind the keyboard. I’ll be putting the first few chapters of Nadya up on Wattpad as soon as I can mock up up a cover for them (ping me if you’re interested in helping), just as a teaser to tide you over until I can get the final thing whipped into shape. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it.

In Soulwoven-related news, we’ve crossed the 100,000 reads mark! This is a big moment for me, as (in my head, anyway) it marks a boundary between “Should I publish this or not?” My relationship with Soulwoven has evolved significantly since I started writing it. It’s my first novel, and the things I’m trying to do in it (creating a complete secondary world, telling eight different sides of a complicated story in alternating points of view, and working in a pretty saturated genre) are wildly ambitious, given that. I’ve gone from seeing it as my ticket to the big-time to seeing it as a sort of off-beat, interesting, arty project that, if it finds great success, will find it through the love of a few dedicated fans and word of mouth, rather than through the enormous, heart-and-soul-powered mechanism that is the publishing industry.

Thanks again for being a part of it.

Three Dances is coming as soon as I can get these copy edits finished. You may also have noticed that I posted an interview with Gytha Lodge, author of The Fragile Tower. I plan to do more of these with some of Wattpad’s top-ranked authors, and they’re worth checking out. Gytha’s got a very interesting personal story involving a literary agency, a theatre award, and a stationery company.

And, of course, Happy New Year! All the best to you and yours, and thank you for bringing a little bit of your light to my world in 2012.

-Jeff