Clearing my thoughts

Haven't posted since October 2009. Not really sure why today. Partly just to see if writing will help me focus my thoughts.

For all that I haven't posted here in a long time, the blog still gets readers on a regular basis--though most of them are looking at a single page--the piece that I wrote on a quotation of Emerson, which on its own gets one to two new visitors every day. For whatever reason that one posting gets a lot of attention.

Last time I posted, I had just sent off the manuscript of the book I was working on to the publisher. Now it is done. The book is out. My first book. Even if I was the second author.

Since then I wrote two more complete drafts of my own book--which I had been talking about in previous posts--my own book on writing.

I recently sent a proposal to one publishing house. The editor looked at the proposal, requested the manuscript, and then rejected the manuscript. I consider this a victory. I sent off a proposal, got a response, and the response was positive. Then I got rejected. But it wasn't immediate. The book proposal and manuscript have been sent to another publisher, and I'm waiting to hear back.

If you want to get published, I think you have to be ready to get rejected. I'm working on that. It's hard getting rejected. My hopes got up when the publisher asked for the manuscript. And once I got rejected, it took a lot of wind out of my sails. It took me weeks to revise/rewrite the proposal for the new publisher. Yes, I wrote the first one specifically for a single publisher, and I revised/rewrote for the second, and suspect that I will target it to each individual publisher I send to.

I don't know who is next. If rejected by the publisher I've sent it to, I don't know what publisher I would try next. Maybe an academic one? But maybe a trade house? And it's a different world between the two. Anyway...it's on my mind.

Painful waiting to hear back on something that might get rejected. I e-mailed the publisher and got an auto-response saying "out of the office; won't look at your mail until next week." So I know that I have to wait at least until next week.

OK, so I hadn't really been thinking about my own manuscript in a while, but it has been neglected while I've worked on the proposals.

I still have other work, too. Writing always helps get stuff in order--especially my thoughts. I don't know why I don't do more of it.