Photo courtesy of suphakit73/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Dear readers, are you in for a treat today! Since we talked last week about goals and accomplishments and submissions and acceptances and rejections, I thought this would be the perfect time to introduce my friend, Carol Barnier, to you and let you get a glimpse of her amazingly hilarious work!
Carol has given me permission to reprint a funny-serious instructional piece that first appeared at the WordServe Water Cooler site. Be sure to read Carol’s bio below, but I just can’t move on without sharing her tagline with you: “Delightful Speaker, Entertaining Author, Adequate Wife, Pitiful Housekeeper.” Ahhhh…I love it…a woman after my own heart! Thanks for joining us, Carol.
(Oh, and readers, thanks for sharing an accomplishment or two last week as we celebrated the year’s end. Now don’t forget to check at the end of the article to see who won Cec Murphey’s awesome book, Unleash the Writer Within)
She Never Had a Rejection?
by Carol Barnier
I once met a woman at a writers conference and, as writers often do, we began sharing what we’d written, what we hoped to improve on, perhaps publications we’d like to write for some day, editors we wanted to meet. The usual stuff. But when I talked about the last rejection note I’d received, this woman got a curious little smile on her face and sweetly said, “You know, I don’t typically say this out loud, but I’ve never ever gotten a rejection. . .not even once.”
That conference was a while ago, so I no longer remember where I hid the body.
But at the time, my snark-o-meter went on full alert, and I found myself thinking dozens of less-than-charitable thoughts.
Maybe she’s never submitted anything. That would sure hold down the rejection letters.
Maybe she’s writing for a very tight niche–like Amish women scuba divers–and she just happens to be one of three writers on the planet with the right contacts.
Maybe (and here’s where I sank to my lowest level of cynicism), maybe she’s sleeping with the editor. That’s because she’s married to him, and together they started a third-rate magazine and she provides 90% of the content with snappy pieces like “You, Ginseng Tea, and a Happier Colon.”
See, I told you I’d reached a new low.
Big sigh. God probably just sent her my way to improve my humility and compassion skills. Apparently I have a ways to go.
Here’s the thing—I think she was being sincere, and was possibly even surprised at her own good fortune. And she may well have written lovely and informative pieces for top-notch magazines. But the problem with her comment is that it’s the writer’s equivalent of winning the lottery. The real truth is, in the world of writing, if you’re not getting rejections, you’re just not in the game.
The publishing industry has a very steep learning curve. For much of it you’ve just got to get in there and start. I’m not saying you should skip the process of researching the publication ahead of time, spelling the editor’s name correctly, and fashioning your piece with their readers in mind. In other words, don’t ignore the process of learning craft and industry. But much of that learning will come from doing, failing, rethinking, and doing again. Almost every published author I know has at least one massive fail to their credit.
A rejection letter can mean many things, but the only sure thing it means is that you sent something in. So instead of seeing it as proof positive that you can’t write, consider other very likely scenarios such as:
- The magazine had something like it recently.
- The magazine has something like it already in the hopper and it’s working its way up.
- The magazine has worked with a particular writer who’s been talking about doing something like this, and they’d rather take a chance on someone who has some history with the magazine.
- Or maybe the piece was just too ______ [insert word of choice—edgy, tame, academic, casual, ecumenical, evangelical, rural, urban, prissy, intense] for their magazine’s style or their audience.
Learn to embrace rejections. Unless you plan to win the writers’ lottery, there’s simply no way to avoid them. In fact, they’re like a merit badge, proving you’re in the game. I’m not saying you’ll ever come to love them. But you can see them as useful. I, for one, open them, learn from them, and then use them to wallpaper my bathroom.
Bio: Carol Barnier is the author of four books, mother to three children and wife to one husband. She is a popular radio guest across the country and a regular humor contributor to Focus on the Family’s Weekend Radio. She has written dozens of magazine articles and is a frequent coast-to-coast speaker. She strives for an Erma Bombeck/C.S.Lewis mix, but admits that she more often achieves a strong Lucy Ricardo/Bob the Tomato. While she can be quite serious, probably the best description of her is what you find on her business cards: Delightful Speaker, Entertaining Author, Adequate Wife, Pitiful Housekeeper. While her humor will have you leaning sideways, her faith is solid stuff. She may speak about her first born son’s 13 surgeries, her own family’s many ADHD challenges, or her personal faith walk from being a God-denying atheist to the most grateful recipient of God’s amazing grace. But whatever the topic, this woman speaks from the heart. She knows why she knows what she knows. To find out more about Carol and her writing and speaking ministry, be sure to check out her website at CarolBarnier.com.
(Rejection photo courtesy of suphakit73/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
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Who Won Cec Murphey’s Book, Unleash the Writer Within?
The winner is Judith Robl! Congratulations, Judith! I just need you to Contact Me with your snail mail address and the book will be on its way! I know you’re going to love it!
Readers, if you haven’t gotten your own copy of Unleash the Writer Within, you need to go ahead and get it here. You won’t be disappointed!
And be sure to check back on Thursday to see who won the $100 MoGo7000 Challenge for 2012! 
Vonda
