rejection Archives - Emily Royal

Critique Groups – 8 Good Reasons to Love

Emily Royal authors, critiques, publishing, rejection, writing June 19, 2018June 23, 2018 0 Comment

Writing is a solitary activity. I spend most of it alone, usually late at night, most often with a mug of tea and a snake for company (see photo).

Even when writing in a crowded place you’re alone. You need to dive into your head and listen to the voices in order to get those words on the page. Sounds like pretentious flim-flam, but it’s true. For a committed introvert like me (all hail the INFJ personality) the necessity for solitude isn’t an ordeal, but it introduces a layer of problems associated with feelings of isolation, inadequacy and loss of confidence.

At some point in a writer’s life people will read your work. Writing itself isn’t frightening but having others read your work is vomit-inducingly terrifying. Your heart and soul is on the page and you’re letting it flap in the breeze, exposed to the elements, sitting atop the parapet waiting to be shot at.

The most powerful support mechanism out there for a writer is the critique group. One I’m in came together very organically and quite by chance; a bit like that rare occasion when you can’t remember why or how you wrote a scene but it’s the one you’re most proud of.

That’s the best writer group there is – not people forced together like a band manufactured with the sole purpose of income generation for the likes of Simon Cowell, but more like a group of high-schoolers from all walks of life who stumble across each other in someone’s Mum’s garage – or, in this case, a small hole in cyberspace acting as a virtual garage.

So, with that in mind, here’s my top 8 benefits of belonging to a critique group.

1 Critiques
What it says on the tin! Good critique pals set their personal tastes aside and focus on the quality of your characterisation, story development, imagery, dialogue (ahem) sex scenes, you name it. It’s scary, so scary, letting other people read what you’ve written. But the more you share, the more immune you become.

2 Two-way street
I always had it drummed into me that at Christmas it’s more blessed to give than to receive –which means Christmas happens on a regular basis with my critique pals. By critiquing the work of my buddies I’ve learnt a lot about the craft of writing, having seen all sorts of great examples on how to do it. By writing down my appraisals of their work it’s helped me recognise some of the issues in my own work, too.

3 Honesty
…is most certainly the BEST policy! Yes, it’s wonderful to be told your book is the best thing they’ve ever read, but the time comes when only the most brutal of appraisals is required. Using risk management jargon (the actuary in me will never die), the critique group is your second line of defence, the first being your own inner editor. They are, in essence, the collective Chief Risk Officers who review each element of your project (dialogue, pacing, imagery etc) and red-flag anything that might spell disaster for your book’s prospects. They tell me where my writing sucks and why.

4 Variety
As human beings, critique partners will differ in their opinions. As do publishers and agents! This helps me to have the confidence to take their feedback on board but also to remember that for my project, I can decide what I change and what I don’t. Plus the added bonus is that the critique group hive mind presents me with a lot of options and I get to choose the best.

5 Consistency
Yes, I know this contradicts the one above, but if my critique pals give me a consistent message, that’s telling me something! Sometimes howlers or honking great canyons in the plot are right before me but I can’t see them. If all my buddies spot it, that tells me how big a deal it is.

6 Problem-sharing
Nobody – and I mean nobody – will have your back as much as your critique pals. While you’re waiting to hear back from your submissions, or when you’ve had a rejection from that one company you’d pinned your hopes on (or, as once happened to me, two rejections within 20 minutes of each other on a Saturday evening), the critique buddies are the only people who really get it. They feel your pain because they’ve been there. I turn to them every time I find myself asking “what’s-the-point-of-it-all-why-don’t-I-just-give-up-writing”.

7 Joy-augmenting
For want of sounding like a parrot, nobody – and I mean nobody – is going to celebrate your successes as much as your critique pals (see above for the reason!)

8 Steam vent
I suppose any secret group is good for this but sometimes we just want to vent when things aren’t working – when our plot’s not stacking up, the words just won’t come, we’re besieged by rejections, we’ve had another 1-star review, we’ve had reviews disappear or when an author has sent us a threatening C&D letter for having a certain word in the title (couldn’t resist the nod to #cockygate) – then the critique buddies band together and share in mutual venting. Boils are always better lanced.

So if you ever feel isolated or if you’re afraid of letting others see your work – you don’t have to be! There’s bound to be other like-minded souls out there wanting to hook up with other authors. There’s loads of bigger groups on Facebook to join where you can ask of anyone fancies being a critique partner.

I can safely say the best choice I ever made writing-wise was joining a critique group. If you’re thinking of forming or joining one then do it – you won’t regret it!

Em xx

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Coping with Rejection – my 6 top tips!

Emily Royal agents, publishing, rejection, writing January 23, 2018 8 Comments

They say you’re not a proper writer until you experience rejection. No point beating about the bush here – rejection sucks. Writing is so personal that you automatically think you’re being rejected as an individual as opposed to the more clinical reason which is that the agent or publisher simply doesn’t think they’ll make enough money from your novel. Saying that, there does have to be a certain amount of emotion involved. They have to love your writing enough to want to fight for it. Agents must pitch to editors and editors, in turn, have to persuade sales teams. They’re going to need to be as passionate about your book as you are.

There’s as many different types of rejection as there are agents and editors, so I’ve split them into five categories:

A Silence
AKA “black holes”. Some of them only respond if they’re interested. Understandable because they get thousands of submissions a year. But it’s tough on the author who doesn’t get any closure.

B The Form
AKA the bog-standard rejection, which the vast majority of queries get. A dead giveaway is that it’s usually signed by unknownassistantwhomakesthetea@literaryorganisation.com and contains standard wording about having “read your project with interest but it’s not right for us.” Chances are this one never made it to the agent/editor.

C The Almost-Form
As B but signed by the agent/editor in person. Though again, it’ll contain something generic about not being right for their list. Better than B because at least the assistant thought it worth passing on to the agent even if the agent didn’t get past the first page.

D The Non-Form
From the agent/editor in person and says something specific about your writing such as the style, dialogue, whether they like the dramatic nature etc. But they’re not in love with it enough to want to see more. Better than C because at least they felt compelled to add a few extra words. When they have hundreds of rejections to send out that day (rejection day always seems to be a Friday – note to self, don’t check e:mails on Fridays) taking the time to add a personal comment is an endorsement.

E The Almost There
At this point they’ve usually asked for and read your full manuscript. They may even have loved it and in some cases phoned or met you in person to discuss your manuscript and your writing aspirations. But ultimately they decide to pass and usually they explain why.

So what to do? This will depend on the type of rejection.

For A & B Check your query letter, especially if you’re getting a lot of this type. Check the agency/publisher’s website for their specific requirements. They’re looking for reasons to reject so if they ask for a 3-line hook in your query letter, don’t stretch it to 4!

For C As A & B but consider your sample chapters too. The agent might have read the first couple of pages. Do they draw the reader in from the beginning? Is there anything there to give the agent an excuse for not reading on till the end?

For D This one’s a bit harder. Chances are your query letter is good enough to get them to read your work and the writing is good enough to entice them past Page 1. So check your synopsis and chapters again. Get a second opinion – and not from a friend or family member who’d avoid brutal honesty! Try writing groups, critique groups or even a professional critique service.

For E This is the worst type of rejection. The closer you get to success, the harder it gets. An “almost-there” represents a strong endorsement of the quality of your writing. Someone, somewhere in the industry, who makes a living out of selling books, loves your book – all of it. That’s a massive deal. However, they may not be confident about the genre selling enough, or they’ve been unable to persuade their colleagues it’s worth investing in – or perhaps they have another author on their list who’s too similar thus presenting a conflict of interest. At this point you’ve spent hours on your project; proof-reading, submitting, refining and believing in your work. It really sucks when it falls at the final hurdle.

So here’s my SIX top tips for coping with rejection, in particular an “almost-there”.

1 Throw a wobbly. No, really. Let it out. Find some way to release that frustration be it a long walk, a run or an X-box shoot-out. With my latest almost-there I spent the evening playing Call of Duty with my teenage daughter. The air turned blue, gin was served, I shot a lot of imaginary people and felt a whole lot better afterwards.

2 Tell someone. Writer buddies, friends, family. People who understand. Open the prosecco you were keeping on ice and celebrate supportive friends. The day after I received my almost-there rejection a lovely writer friend came over and we toasted friendship, the endorsement and chatted about the future. I also have a wonderful team of critique pals who provided online support and have experienced the dreaded almost-there so know how it feels.

3 Look after yourself. Fresh air, a healthy meal, a good night’s sleep. Chances are you’ve been burning the midnight oil and living on adrenaline while writing, editing and submitting your novel which over the weeks and months will have turned into a very needy baby. Time to give baby a rest and look after you! Go for a walk in the woods, cuddle your favourite pet, whatever floats your boat (see the bottom of this post for a photo of who I cuddle when I need cheering up).

4 Remember it’s happened to the best of them. Checks the stats on the internet. JK Rowling had “loads” (in her words) of rejections, not only for the boy wizard, but her alter-ego Robert Galbraith received a few less than complimentary responses from publishers. Gone With the Wind was rejected almost 40 times before it was published. Agatha Christie endured 5 years of rejection and Beatrix Potter had so many rejections she turned to self-publishing.

5 Write your next book. Set aside your almost-there-but-rejected book and focus on another one. You’re a writer, right? In which case you’re not going to just write one book, you’re going to write a lot. Focus on the next one and the next until you crack it. Then revisit the almost-there’s. They might be suitable for release as your second or third book once you’ve built up a readership.

6 Re-submit. You’ll never be immune to rejection but the emotional scar tissue does toughen you up. Resubmit to those agents/publishers and try again. The ones who gave you good feedback, including the almost-there’s will have liked something about your work. Send in a new project and remind them what they liked about the first.

I loathe clichés but they do say that the only way to guarantee never succeeding is to give up. So for 2018 my resolution is to persevere and keep writing!

Em xx

A little post-rejection pet therapy with a Burmese Python ?

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Tanni & Tenacity

Emily Royal rejection, RNA, sport, writing June 9, 2017June 9, 2017 2 Comments

I never imagined my first proper blog post would have a grainy selfie or a photo of someone enormously famous. But I couldn’t resist writing about my encounter with a sporting heroine.

Think of a Paralympic athlete, the first name springing to mind is likely to be Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. I had the privilege of meeting her earlier this week at a conference where she was the after-dinner speaker. Cue wine-fuelled fan-girl moment when a friend and I snuck over to her table after dessert.

She’s absolutely lovely; gracious, down-to-earth and willing to stay and chat to us: one of those warm, friendly people capable of putting anyone at ease.

Her best quote of the night was “I’ve lost many more races than I’ve won; but I happened to win a few important ones.” For one of her winning races (the 100m in Athens 2004 for sports buffs) she spoke about a rival athlete who’d seen her lose the 800m earlier. The rival approached Tanni, having seen her confidence plummet and gave her words of encouragement ahead of the 100m. When Tanni won the 100m she asked her rival why she’d encouraged her. The response was “because if I was going to win, I’d want to win fairly.”

It made me think about the stress of manuscript submissions and the myth that authors compete against each other. Part of being a writer is getting rejections. OK, that’s a BIG part of being a writer. But it only takes one “yes” to bag that all-important “win.” One rejection doesn’t mean the end of the world, or that you should give up – instead, it moves you closer to that perfect agent or publisher.

The rivalry is interesting. But if a Paralympian can encourage her rival in a world where winning is at the forefront of everything, writers can support each other too. This is where critique partners, reading groups or beta readers, can be invaluable sources of support as well as more formal organisations such as the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA).

So “Tenacity” is my keyword today. Never give up, stay positive in the face of rejection and find a network of critique partners. Oh – and if you ever have the chance to chat to a sporting legend, particularly if your courage has been fueled by a glass of wine or two, don’t waste it!

Em 🙂

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