I got my first rejection letter from a publisher yesterday. It is a rite of passage for every aspiring author :) In fact I got a text from my published writer friend to say congrats! Apparently it means I am now a real writer! lol.
As far as rejection letters go, this one's not too bad actually. The publisher said "Unfortunately with the publishing industry in it's current state, I felt your novel would not be commercial enough". I want to remain positive, so I will take that to mean the novel was not completely rubbish, and her rejection is simply down to economics and timing. I've heard of editors giving some really funny reasons for rejecting a novel to the tune of "Do yourself a favour and don't give up the day job"! So FG will pick herself up and carry on. As someone else said, it can only mean I'm one step closer to meeting the right publisher.
The fear of rejection was one of the things I was so worried about when I first decided to start writing, but I think I've had to see it as one of the things that come with the business side of writing, and not take it personally. Even the most successful authors who have won long lists of awards for their writing had to face rejection at some point. Determination and resilience is an essential strength to have in this game, and a thick skin is also very useful!
On to other news:
To say a big thank you to our readers and supporters, we are running a competition and giveaway for the next three weeks on our series blog! Check it out! This is the first one and entries will close on Monday the 14th. There will be two more competitions and prizes until Christmas, so make sure you click over to the blog now and enter. You could be a winner!
Hope you enjoy the rest of the week and have a great weekend ahead.
FG
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Thursday, December 03, 2009
Meeting My Mentor
The Christmas season is upon us. I can tell by all the ads on TV and the hundreds of emails I get telling me about one item or the other I need to have "the perfect Christmas". It gets on my nerves to see how much Christmas is commercialised in this part of the world, but I can't do anything about it so I just have to ignore it
Last weekend I was privileged to have lunch with Abidemi Sanusi, one of my mentors. We had been chatting online for a while and I was really excited when she invited me to have lunch at home with her. (She said she figured I was not a stalker, weirdo or time waster, lol!). She's been a great great help to me in the past two years, giving me encouraging comments about my work, taking time to teach me stuff about how the industry works, critiquing my work when I needed it. We had a very good afternoon, bonding over food and wine, talking about everything ranging from books to gender issues. She's great! I had been quite nervous about meeting her but she's very down to earth, no airs or pretenses at all and she put me at ease immediately. It felt like I was meeting up with an old friend. I learnt a lot from her in one afternoon, some stuff that other people have to pay money for :). Thanks Bidemi! I look forward to meeting you again, this time I'll host :)
It's funny how we don't realise how attached we are to our gadgets. My laptop was out of order for five days and I couldn't do anything! I experienced severe withdrawal symptoms because even though I could access the internet on my phone, I still could not do many other things! I couldn't open, write or edit Word documents or pdf files, I couldn't download stuff, I couldn't catch up on some of the programmes I had scheduled. Besides the tiny buttons and screen on the phone got tired after one day. Sigh. Thankfully I have my laptop back and the world is alright now :)
Have a good weekend everyone!
Last weekend I was privileged to have lunch with Abidemi Sanusi, one of my mentors. We had been chatting online for a while and I was really excited when she invited me to have lunch at home with her. (She said she figured I was not a stalker, weirdo or time waster, lol!). She's been a great great help to me in the past two years, giving me encouraging comments about my work, taking time to teach me stuff about how the industry works, critiquing my work when I needed it. We had a very good afternoon, bonding over food and wine, talking about everything ranging from books to gender issues. She's great! I had been quite nervous about meeting her but she's very down to earth, no airs or pretenses at all and she put me at ease immediately. It felt like I was meeting up with an old friend. I learnt a lot from her in one afternoon, some stuff that other people have to pay money for :). Thanks Bidemi! I look forward to meeting you again, this time I'll host :)
It's funny how we don't realise how attached we are to our gadgets. My laptop was out of order for five days and I couldn't do anything! I experienced severe withdrawal symptoms because even though I could access the internet on my phone, I still could not do many other things! I couldn't open, write or edit Word documents or pdf files, I couldn't download stuff, I couldn't catch up on some of the programmes I had scheduled. Besides the tiny buttons and screen on the phone got tired after one day. Sigh. Thankfully I have my laptop back and the world is alright now :)
Have a good weekend everyone!
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