real writers advice

You know JRR Tolkien's book 'The Lord Of The Rings' was rejected many times before someone finally agreed to publish it. And it is one of the best books that has ever been written. There are many other authors who have had the same experiences. They have suffered rejection after rejection... only to find that when they do finally get accepted, what they have written becomes a best-seller. If these people had given up we would never had such a fine book as JRR Tolkiens Lord Of The Rings to grace our bookshelfs. I don't know how it works in the publishing world. I am new to the writing thing. Though from what I've heard, people tell me the best thing you can do is to keep writing without thinking too much about the publishing side of things. Someone once told me that it all boils down to this thing called pendragon alchemy. When you put your heart and soul into something without trieing to get anything in return. Just crafting something for the love of it. God and the angels help us and take care of our needs and opens doors for us to take our craft further. I don't really fully understand it. Just keep writing... I think every writer dreams about one day getting there work published and being able to walk into a shop and see their book on the shelf. All writers deserve to experience that moment. I hope all writers do. Maybe all writers do. Maybe its a spiritual thing. A koan. keep sending your manuscripts to as many publishers as you can, and don't be dis-heartened if you get a rejection slip. It don't mean your a failure or anything. Like that parable of Jesus were he says you have to keep knocking on the door and eventually the person in the house will answer it. From what I can see perseverance is the key... don't give up...

I know Real Writers - they're a good agency. Lots of mags run critique services (Writers Brew is also a good one - see earlier thread) for which you usually have to pay a small but reasonable fee. Consult WAYB for further services. Personally, I don't think it's procrastination, but a very sensible move - the critique you get is, more often than not, extensive and valuable. Like anything else, you just have to research your market first.

Plenty of good advice there. In general, it is hard to be objective about your own work - and even in a pure grammar and typo sense, someone you don't know is much more likely to point these out. This is the harsh, harsh truth of publishing. You have to learn to deal with rejection. Not everyone can do it - I don't cope too well myself, but if you want to get published, you may have to read hundreds of rejection letters and not let it destroy your confidence. If someone gives constructive criticism, take it on board, but if it is just a no, don't get disheartened. Why not put your first chapter up for critiquing here, which will have the virtue of being free and may fix the more obvious problems (trust me, there are very little first chapters that don't have obvious problems). I think the best thing to do is keep writing - writing a book is like being a building company trying to pitch for building a cathedral - you don't learn enough to build a cathedral until you've put up a few ramshackle churches. Sooner or later, electronic publishing is going to hit big and publisher's costs will go down dramatically - which ought to mean them taking a few more risks.

Thank you all for your encouragement. I think I'll head down the Real Writers route to start with and see what they say. I'm not yet ready to deal with the whole rejection thing - I have always written for pleasure and getting one critique might be okay for me to handle - but hundreds? Not yet for me! I'm not ready to have my dreams destroyed yet! Seagull - loved your pendragon alchemy, am pleased to see that me whiling away the hours for my own entertainment makes sense (did I interpret that correctly?) Andrea - glad someone vouches for the service, thanks, will spend the money Roy - eek, what a horror story! Has your daughter decided to go into publishing now? We could all use an insider! Andrew - Good advice galore especially about using the service here of critiquing. But, am not yet ready for comments from everybody. Guess I am a coward when it comes to something that I really, really care about as opposed to the oddities that I post here! Thank you all for your thoughts, I'm new to this whole community thing, but it's great for giving you a boost.