I AM A HAPPY FAILURE

Guess what friends! I have been turned down twice for my children's book.

I don't wish to paper my walls with rejections as I have an elegant home
and want it to remain that way.

Life is too short for me to pursue such a difficult goal.
I admire those of you who have managed to snag a publisher.

I will have to satisfy myself with other pursuits.

Dear Alice,
I am glad you are here. You are not a failure. You are a beautiful person with many talents. One of them is writing.

I doubt that any big publisher will discover me or Wooffer in any lifetime too soon, but I had fun in the writing. I think you did, too. Your chances are very good.

Love,
Betty

Alice,

Thomas Edison said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

In your case, two ways that didn't work are enough.

Betty,

You are so right. I found many wonderful friends. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

I have received wonderful news--and so, so news.
Since I have passed the five year mark, I don't need to check my pancreas for two years!

When they replaced my battery they discovered my right lead had slipped. It may break, if so I will need to have brain job again. I hope it does not break.

Shelagh wrote:

Alice,

Thomas Edison said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

In your case, two ways that didn't work are enough.

Perfect!

alice wrote:

Guess what friends! I have been turned down twice for my children's book.

Didn't you post earlier that someone was interested in looking at it? It must have merit for you to have gotten that for. Two is nothing, send it to two more, and then consider tweaking it.

6/27/2010

Alice..

Look at life this way, you published a
book, it was a great story, I know I read it. You
have a beautiful family, a great husband, friends
who are writers and love you. This is great,
enjoy your many blessings....


Love Joe

joefrank wrote:

6/27/2010

Alice..

Look at life this way, you published a
book, it was a great story, I know I read it. You
have a beautiful family, a great husband, friends
who are writers and love you. This is great,
enjoy your many blessings....


Love Joe

Joe,

I agree.

LC,

You are kind.

Thanks, but I will pass on the stress.

It isn't worth it to me.

In case you haven't tried this, go to smashbooks.com and publish it on the iPad and Kindle. Go to lulu.com and createspace.com and do a few PODs.

Get Patterson's "Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher" to read how to do it and how stress-free the process is.

And please stay here. I enjoy your posts.

You stay. I like yours.

Alice, you of course are not a failure. This book publishing thing can be stressful, but I like what Al said, and I think you shouldn't give up just yet. I guess I agree with what everyone said.

Don't give up just yet . . . who knows what's right around the corner.

Helen,

Thanks! I don't feel distressed or upset over this at all.

We have had such publishing battles that I decided to try.

Ordinarily, I would keep on trying. In the past six years, I have had eight surgeries and am looking at about one every year or so for as long as I live.

No additional stress is needed.

Just having a book published is nothing --it has to be sold.

What about posting it at Smashwords as an ebook? If you set it up as a premium ebook it will be part of the Apple ebooks setup. I know some people who are considering only publishing ebooks.

You can also set it up at Kindle as an ebook and it becomes part of the Kindle books.

I do think the day will come when print books are a luxury; it'll take a while, but it'll come.

She'd still have to market it at Smashwords, right? I think Alice would prefer a publisher market her book. I may be wrong.

LC,

YOU ARE RIGHT!

I guess I heard Alice giving up after two rejections, and a quality book that's ready to publish has other options before giving up entirely.

Definitely seek the agent and and the traditional publisher if you have the determination to succeed in spite of multiple rejections. You just have to not let the rejections hurt your spirit.

It's sort of like selling Fuller brushes door to door. That salesman gets more "no's" than "yes." But the one customer who loves Fuller brushes may make him the day's commission. So, he keeps knocking ...

If he can't take all that rejection, he may go to work for Sears instead where the customers have an idea what they want and come to him. In both cases, he gets a commission. It's all in what suits the writer...

If Alice were normal, she would persevere.

I am in reality. I am a retired accountant. My brain runs on batteries.

I have enough to do to get around without falling down.

My husband takes care of me. I don't wish to stress him, my children or self with trying to get a book published.

I will not climb Mt Everest either. I had wanted to walk to the base of it.

Life and goals change.
Thank you all for your encouragement.

There's a thought. Alice normal. Nah.

Shelagh wrote:

There's a thought. Alice normal. Nah.

You get it!

By the way, the only reason I announced this was because I had said I had two offers to look at my book. I have a third, but don't want to follow their formatting rules to hear "No thanks!"

I am not sad or disheartened.

It is not like my life long goal has been thwarted.
I wish you guys had been around when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, thought I had Pancreatic cancer etc. You are great support.

THANK YOU!

("...you're not a failure..." went the goblin, adding "...but if you accept their mindset then you deserve to fail, because you will be giving them the authority that they don't have, where if you really want those children to read you books, like your are reading this post now..., ...")

fleamailman wrote:

("...you're not a failure..." went the goblin, adding "...but if you accept their mindset then you deserve to fail, because you will be giving them the authority that they don't have, where if you really want those children to read you books, like you are reading this post now..., ...")

Progress--thanks--keep on talking to people that is what mesage boards are for.

("...me, I'd write and be dammed then, an anonymous dyslexic who has move fun on forumland than most, I was engaged over four forums this evening while posting to others too, I made some raw posts which I will now redo later..." went the goblin, contining "...now, if I were writing for children I'd find a children's forum, if I couldn't find a forum for children's reading, I'd simply create one, and if I wanted children to hear my book, I'd make youtube streams reading my own books to them, but I don't see where in any of this I need a publisher now...")

Failure, Alice, is what you are not.

Hmmm...
Seems the last time you told me you were done with something, I said, "Do what is best for you." (or words to that effect)

And you decided to give it another try....

So, Alice, my very dear friend,...Do what is best for you.

Ann

Ann,


Thank you. You are the best.