A Work in Progress

Panel: Beth Meacham (M), Michael Underwood, Eleanor Wood, Mary Robinette Kowal, Joshua Bilmes

My Notes

• Everybody gets rejected
• It's just a part of being in the business
• Check the web sites to better understand what the publishers and editors are looking for
• Sometimes you get a rejection just because it's not a good match
• Sometimes it's because you need to write better
• Rejectomancy
• Trying to over analyze rejections is probably one of the worst mistakes writers make
• The more you send out, the easier it should become
• If you're an unpublished author and you receive a rejection, your state had not changed
• In your query, don't say "I've already written four books in the series"
• Fight the instinct to rewrite the novel after each rejection
• Books sometimes get rejected just because of existing inventory in the publishing pipeline
• Reading slush is good way to learn about how stories work
• Every time you pick up something, you want it to be "the one"
• Read your own book and note where you start skimming; these are the points that bore you
• Also, note the points where you stop reading and why
• Learn by writing other things in the meantime
• Submit something and then start another book (not the sequel!)
• Focus on upping your game and your accomplishments
• #1: they don't finish
• #2: they don't submit
• #3: (sorry, didn't catch this one - someone came in late and distracted me)
• People have an internal heckler *and* an internal editor
• If you have a good editor, they make your work better
• Every writer goes through the stage where they hate the work
• The metaphorical red line of death (when the editor) stops reading entirely
• Overexplaining, stopping the story, and too much detail
• When the POV character looks in a mirror to describe themselves
• The POV character being dazed, confused, and don't know where they are
• A great writer can break all the rules, but they know which rules they're breaking
• If I don't care about the character, I don't want to read it
• Ender's Game is a good example
• Maybe 1 in 1000 submissions will get more than the standard rejection letter