Getting through the (latest) doldrums, even if you only have a teaspoon to row with...part deux

 

I came across an old post from around ten years ago and discovered it was still relevant and might bear repeating. So here 'tis ...

While my poetry (both adults and childrens) is being picked up here and there ... it has been a little while since I last had a story (of any kind) accepted. I have had droughts before and they are never fun. As I quoted in that past post - it's a whole lot harder to stay published than to get published. For those of you still trying to break in this can seem counter-intuitive. Surely once you are 'in' you know the secret of how to achieve an acceptance. Except the secret isn't really a secret. It's producing a well enough written story that a publisher can see the merits and the potential profitability of. You don't need an introduction, or to 'know' someone. There's no special handshake or password. In the beginning, I just kept sending my stories in, and working on new ones until one stuck. No secrets. Now, I do the same. Sending stories in, working on new ones, hoping like crazy. Persistence really is a useful quality in this business. And even then, when your story is good and smart and saleable it might still fall into that bottomless crack that exists between 'same, same, but different', 'one out of the box' or 'just before (or after) the crest of a trend'. And there is always the publisher's box to be ticked which has no definition, they just know it when they see it, and no they can't explain what that means. No secrets, some magic. Rinse and repeat.

So you've succeeded a few times and you are slowly understanding how things work and getting the hang of this business. How can this make things harder? This seems like an advantage, and of course, to a certain extent it is because it streamlines the process of submission. But it doesn't make them say yes in any different ways, or more often than they did before. In the mean time trends are shifting and changing, and the economies of countries are contracting or contracting some more. Publishers may want to invest in your next book but their money must be spent as wisely as possible to enable their business to continue and there just may be less of it to spend on everything, because trends, global financial stuff, changing platforms, latest thing, and most probably all of the above. If your last book didn't sell as well as they wanted then that will have an impact on whether they take your next book. Even if they really want your next book. And you've honed your voice and style and that shines through in all of your stories and is that what people want, or don't want, is it tired or is that how the fans you do have know you best and is what they wait impatiently for. And do the publishers want more of that or are they searching for new voices?  And yet in amongst all of this you are changing too. All the things you've written previously have shaped and influenced what you are writing now. And personal things happening in your private life are affecting you too. Books you are reading, world events, life events, aging, families growing or contracting, sadness, happiness, other stuff you do to keep the wolf from the door, or the labrador, cos like you know they eat a lot and are endlessly hungry. You are a long way from your debut you, and you know stuff and that isn't always helpful to your writing.

And of course the fear of never getting published, or not being good enough just surreptitiously transforms into imposter syndrome, or an advanced form of self doubt. It never goes away. It is stubborn and pernicious - damn it.

So, what do you do?

The only thing you can do, if you want to advance to be an established writer. You utilise all that change and growth and labrador drool and keep banging away at the keyboard. And you stick all of that experience in your stories and your writing. And you smack yourself if you say 'I've reached my peak' or 'I know I'm never going to be better than this' because how the hell do you know (unless you are truly clairvoyant but honestly I still don't think that is the final word). You push, because apparently people who tell themselves they can do better, often do. And you remind yourself that fear is something you have previously successfully overcome or ignored long enough to achieve good shit in the past, so you are clearly capable of doing so again in the future. And if something doesn't work you try something different cos that's what you used to do, and how you got published in the first place. And you remind yourself that good ideas have always arrived at their own pace and there's no reason why that should change now just because you're older and wiser.

And then you realise that it is a whole lot harder to stay published than to get published, and you've been staying published up till now and there's no reason why that shouldn't continue if you give yourself half a chance, and that deserves a bloody good pat on the back and some chocolate and maybe a little bit of confetti. No secret, just magic.

I have things to say ...

I am trying to internet less and be bored more. My mother always told me it was good to be bored. The jury is still out after sixty years and that is the longest debate I have ever had. I have a sneaking suspicion Mum was right and therein lies my pre-teen style resistance.

Anyways, I have been thinking (because I have been interneting less), and it occured to me that as a children's author I am often required to talk on the joy and/or benefits of reading, and the mechanics of writing. I have some good content on those two subjects but I yearn to just sit and yak about why I write the things I write, like authors of books for grown ups get to do. Imagine having a debate on stage with someone who has read and appreciated your work, in front of an adult audience who are curious about how your mind arrived at the stories you tell. I don't want to just give you that content without the cosy armchair and the hot stage spotlight. I'm not sure I can. I want the questions that I am not thinking to ask myself. I want to be surprised and excited about what an interviewer might tease out of my brain. A festival organiser might tell you that the content of children's books are not sexy to an adult audience but those book loving adult minds were built on children's literature. Scratch them and they bleed nostalgia for the books they grew up on. I can never understand how an adult who will name a childhood read as a lifelong favourite will assume a current children's book is superficial with nothing to offer. I have made grown people cry with the content of my stories for young people. I work hard to load them with technique and plant little word grenades that explode with rewards for readers. I am sincere when I talk about how wonderful reading is and good ways for new writers to construct their own stories, but there are corners of my brain that will remain unexplored - I guess you might glimpse them if you read my books. But you will never really know what you have missed. 

What I am reading at the moment. 

I am not finished yet but this is like a ten star read. I cannot recommend it enough.

and also this which is terrifying and hugely important ...