Having the stubbornness to keep pushing the damn rock up the damn hill even after it rolls back down again. Talent is wonderful. Persistence is what really matters, though. And the willingness to keep learning.

In my case, I had lousy timing. I was submitting space operas at a time when spacer operas were “off the table” so to speak. You couldn’t tell this by what was in the bookstores, because lead time between purchase and publish being what it often is, space operas bought two, three years earlier (sometimes longer, depending on whether we’re talking series) were still coming out, but in the cloistered realm of the publishers, no one was buying new ones. I ended up publishing them small press–right before the explosion of Scottish New Space Opera, and because of the nature of things, the books have pretty well gone unnoticed. If I had held onto them a couple more years and sold them to, say, Ace…but you don’t know. It’s like divining the future with tea leaves.

The one true thing, though, is that persistence is the one consistently necessary element–those who pick up their marbles and go away, never succeed, and never know if they could.

I really appreciate established writers who persistently remind newer writers to be persistent. I often wonder how many grand books have not been finished or certainly have not been published because a talented new writer drowned in the slough of despond. A gift for storytelling does not always coincide with having the requisite amount of stubborness/optimism/pragmatism one needs to get through the business part of writing a book.

I think it is quite remarkable, really, how so many writers who have, in some sense, “made it” care deeply about writers who have not. And it clearly isn’t fake.

Writers are my favorite people. Followed closely, of course by readers.

Kate wrote:

Btw, aspiring writers should not use this as an excuse - it’s not me, it’s just that I didn’t meet their requirements - the onus is always on the writer to make their work the best it can be. And to keep revising, writing new material, and pushing to improve the work.

and

Glenda wrote

One mistake I think some beginning writers make is that they try too hard with revising their first book - or even first books.

I think one of the best things a writer can do to for an early or multi-rejected book is to write another book. Only then go back and look at the first one. It is amazing how distance, not just of time, but of words, can give you perspective on your writing.

Carol

No one can hear that too many times. Good post, Carol. Thanks.

Debbie, so often publication comes down to sheer persistence - persistence in writing and learning your craft, persistence in marketing your MS. Does “knowing” the right person help? Think on this - I was taken on by an experienced agent, who had once been an editor in a top London publishing house, in January 1991. Surely someone who “knew” people. She managed to sell a book of mine in 1998, for a 1999 publication date. And that wasn’t even the same book that had attracted her attention in the first place. That book wasn’t sold until 2002 - over eleven years of trying! And yet once published it was shortlisted for a “best fantasy novel of the year” award and has since gone on to be published in the US, and in French, German and Russian translation.

It’s a mad business, this.

One mistake I think some beginning writers make is that they try too hard with revising their first book - or even first books. To be frank, most first books need to be stowed on top of the wardrobe and forgotten. They are part of the learning process, not for publication.

Btw, aspiring writers should not use this as an excuse - it’s not me, it’s just that I didn’t meet their requirements - the onus is always on the writer to make their work the best it can be. And to keep revising, writing new material, and pushing to improve the work.