Tales from Substack
Tales from Substack
Since January, I’ve been writing a monthly newsletter. You can subscribe for free to receive roundups of how I’m getting my writing done, shoutouts for great books I’ve read, and tips for emerging writers.
Every so often, I’ll post extracts here on my blog.
Tip Five: Dealing With Rejection
Anyone finding their way in the creative or entertainment industries has to deal with rejection. Unless you’re a bankable superstar, you’ll likely continue to get your share of no-thank-you even after you’ve enjoyed a modicum of success.
But it’s not all bad news. Here’s a little quiz (taken from the website Lit Rejections):
1. Who was rejected for five years before she landed a publishing deal? Her book sales have since exceeded two billion. Only Shakespeare has sold more.
2. Who clocked up 12 rejections and was advised to get a day job as there was “no money in children’s books”?
3. Whose first novel was rejected by 14 agents, but went on to sell 17 million copies and spent 91 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list?
4. Whose first published novel sold over a million paperback copies in its first year despite him being told: “We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.”?
Answers at the bottom of this post.
If you’ve submitted a novel to an agent or publisher, the types of rejection you might receive include:
1. No reply at all. – Annoying but that’s life, and why it’s important to submit to more than one at a time. (Unless submission guidelines state otherwise.)
2. A standard thanks but no thanks rejection email. – You can reduce the chance of getting one of these by making sure your submission and covering letter are in exactly the format requested and without a single typo. And only submit to agents and publishers who have open submission windows and who take books in your genre.
3. A personalised rejection email, addressed to you by name with a kind comment. – This as an encouraging sign. The book may well have been rejected simply because it isn’t quite right for that publishing house. Perhaps the agent/publisher has just taken on a similar book and doesn’t need a second. Keep on submitting as your book might find a home elsewhere.
4. A rejection email with suggestions for editorial changes. – You’ve hit the jackpot if you get one of these. It’s free advice from an industry expert and implies your work has potential. Give serious consideration to the changes they propose. If you feel they are too radical, get a second opinion from a critique service or from a reliable writing buddy. But don’t be too precious about your draft. A leading publisher rejected one of my drafts but took the trouble to provide three pages of editorial notes. I made the major changes they suggested and resubmitted the revised version. They still didn’t feel it was right for them, but HarperCollins did. The Perfect Neighbours became a Top Ten Kindle bestseller.
The submissions process eats time so don’t waste hours refreshing your mailbox. Start a new project. Perhaps submit a short story to a competition or write a reader’s letter to a magazine. Seeing your name in print on an editor’s page can be the little victory that helps you cope with a bigger rejection. A mini validation reminds you that you’re a writer and you can keep going.
Quiz Answers
1. Agatha Christie
2. J.K. Rowling
3. Stephenie Meyer (Twilight)
4. Stephen King (Carrie)
http://www.litrejections.com/best-sellers-initially-rejected/
Tip Six: Writing Police and Forensic Procedures Accurately
Science Advisor Brian Price says:
Unless you’re writing a purely psychological thriller (and sometimes even then) your crime novel is bound to intersect with science at some point. Forensic details can be intrinsic to the plot, someone might be poisoned or knocked out, and there is often an inconvenient body requiring disposal. Chemistry, biology and even physics all have a part to play – and it’s so easy to get things wrong!
Take knocking people out for instance. Leading writers still use chloroform! The trouble is, it doesn’t work in the way it’s described. When it was used for medical anaesthesia it took about five minutes to put somebody under, and they woke up shortly after it was removed. Shoving a chloroform-soaked pad over someone’s face and having them stay asleep for half an hour is just impossible. The scenario where someone feels a prick in the neck from an anaesthetic-loaded needle and falls asleep five seconds later is also wrong. To knock someone out quickly requires the villain to find a vein, and who’s going to sit still while someone wriggles a needle through the tissues of their neck to reach one?
Firearms are often misrepresented, too. The “silencer” that turns a loud bang into a little “pop” doesn’t exist – suppressors can reduce the noise of a gunshot, but nothing that much. Pistols are pretty inaccurate beyond a few metres, unless the shooter is really skilled and not being fired at, and the scene where someone is blown backwards a considerable distance when hit by a shotgun blast is nonsense. The law of conservation of momentum dictates that if the target is blown backwards two metres then the shooter would be moved the same distance in the opposite direction, assuming both parties weigh about the same.
As to body disposal, anyone who’s done any serious gardening knows that digging a large hole takes ages and the deeper you go, the harder it is. A pickaxe, and preferably a JCB, is needed as well as a lot of stamina - even assuming you can find somewhere with deep enough soil, suitably free of tree roots. You can’t dig a two metre deep grave in a couple of hours in a wood at midnight.
Following an inspiring weekend at Crimefest a few years ago, I decided to set up a website to help authors avoid some of these mistakes. The result was www.crimewriterscience.co.uk. Then my wife suggested I expanded the material and turned it into a book. In due course, Crime writing: How to write the science was published by Studymates.
Sadly, the publisher died last year, and the book is no longer available through the usual bookshops. I have acquired the remaining copies and have put them on ebay and amazon, although it can be difficult to find on the latter site. I can also supply copies direct via my author page, www.brianpriceauthor.co.uk if anybody wants one. Now, I have to find a company interested in publishing a revised edition, sometime in the future!
About Brian
Brian Price is a chemist and biologist who retired from the Environment Agency in 2016. He is the author of Crime Writing: How to write the science and runs a website offering tips on science for crime writers (www.crimewriterscience.co.uk). He taught science and technology courses for the Open University for 26 years. He has advised a number of leading crime writers on scientific aspects of crime.