Thursday, August 9, 2012

FRUSTRATED? WHY? It's all so easy.

Yes, occasionally / mostly / often, we writers possess this attitude, sometimes with a vengeance!

Literary agent Rachelle Gardiner received some interesting comments from readers of her blog. They follow:

1. Frustrated at finding the right audience.
2. Frustrated with the marketing side of it. To her it feels so much like a waste of time when she'd rather be writing.
3. One had two agents answering her query saying it was great, but they'd pass.
4.One multi-published author had six different manuscripts out to publishers who asked to see them......several months ago! And still no word.
5. One very frustrated fellow said genres have become restrictive requiring square peg stories to be hammered into round genre holes! He wanted to be able to read a story that sweeps across the literary landscape going wherever the story takes it. Umm, a little like the frustrated author in the cartoon?

What frustrates you most about the whole rigmarole of writing the book, finding an agent, sending in the proposal, then having to market the book you know the whole world wants to read? Aargh!!!
But we are writing faith-based fiction aren't we? 
The following encouragement is from Karen Ball of the Steve Laube Agency:

A woman went to visit her mother, telling her how discouraged she was, how weary of all the struggles in life. The mother took her into the kitchen, set three pots of water on the stove, turned the heat on high. In one pot she put carrots; in the second, she put an egg, in the last, coffee grounds. After about 20 minutes, she turned off the heat, fished out the carrot and the egg, and asked her daughter to what changes had taken place.
“The carrot’s all soft and squishy,” the daughter said, “and the egg is hard boiled.”
The mother then poured the water from the coffee grounds into a mug, and had her daughter sip it.
“What change has taken place?”
The daughter smiled. “The water’s been changed into a delicious coffee.”
The mother put her arm around her daughter. “So then, we have a choice when the heat is on in life. We can grow soft and squishy, like the carrot, or hard inside like the egg. Or we can be like the coffee grounds, and change the water around us into something rich and refreshing.”
Let’s give that a try, friends. Let’s let God use the hard times, the discouragements and frustrations, to refine and perfect us. 
* Rita Stella Galieh, author of two published full length novels, is learning to overcome frustration in her attempts at finding comparable books in a requested proposal. Does anyone else find that an easy task? Apart from ACFW's Fiction Finder and AMAZON, where else can you find such things?

13 comments:

  1. I can understand why writers think having to compile a list of comparable writers is frustrating: I'm a reader, and I find it frustrating! I don't want another xxx (Amish romance, SEAL romantic suspense, Wild West historical, Tudor England anything).

    I want to read something unique and original. Something I haven't already read dozens of times before.

    (But I still want it to be excellent: well-written, well-edited, good cover, nicely produced, etc.)

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    1. Viola it's so good to hear your point of view. Yes, sometimes publishers get stuck in these ruts of wanting to make sure the book is just like the best sellers only different!?? That makes us writers dizzy at times. But it's all about the bottom line, which is understandable in these times.

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  2. Rita, re finding comparable books, apart from what you are doing, which is great, could you perhaps just ask via our online writing groups on Facebook or through the e-loops if anyone has read a book recently featuring say a convict couple in the early days of settlement in Australia or whatever it is your next book is about? Just an idea. Otherwise, on occasions, I have taken myself to Koorong and spent ages browsing through other books in my category, but that's a bit hit and miss! I guess in the end, you can only do you best.

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    1. Thanks for that Jo. So-o-o, does anyone of you helpful international writers know of a story set in the late 1890s in an Asian country with two men vying for a young woman who can't distinguish between the hero and the villain, albeit a charmingfellow???
      Uh-oh, maybe The Strange Saga of Kelly's Castle is off the eaten track in more ways than one!

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    2. I meant beaten! In case you figured I was off track too.

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  3. I have just come off a retreat for women military veterans and love your Mother-Daughter story! Is the story copyrighted? i would like to use it with the women vets the next time we meet!
    Judith Coopy
    coopyju@hotmail.com

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    1. Yes, go ahead Judith. I have heard it before so I'm sure it's OK to use it.

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  4. Love the three pots of water story. You should put it in a book :-)

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    1. Isn't it amazing how a simple illustration gets the message across. Thanks Alice.

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  5. Rita, nice post and I've found Amazon or the bookstore the best places for comparison. I find it very frustrating to be marketing one book and either writing or editing another! Love the three pot story too.

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    1. Thanks Jude. I did look in Amazon and found a couple of shorter stories, but the Christian Book is about an hour away.

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  6. Such an encouraging story about the mother and daughter.I find this comparison thing very odd. Even when libraries do it and say 'if you like such and such an author you might like' and then rattle of a string of authors. Most times I find they have little in common. Be interesting to know how they decide.As you can tell I'm not a big fan of comparisons.

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  7. Thanks for a thought-provoking post. Yes, I found this frustrating when I was working on the book proposal for "Strength Renewed." Because it was a book of "Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer" I listed only books of a devotional nature. I was asked why I hadn't included Author X who is a well-known writer on the topic of cancer. Her books aren't devotional! On the other hand, there aren't a whole lot specifically aimed at breast cancer. That's why my book is needed.

    Your point is valid. If there are dozens of books like that out there, why would you write another one?

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