This Author Does NOT “Rush to Get Published”

 

Image credit: Mikhail Nilov via Pexels

 

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: I never allow rejections to get me to stop writing. Just take a look at ALL of the book-length manuscripts, short stories, poems, essays and articles I have collecting dust and you will know that I’m the kind of writer who will keep writing no matter what!

 

Rejections? Market incompatibilities? Overdone topics? Feh. They don’t stop me! I will keep writing and submitting even if I can’t find a home for my poems, short stories, essays and articles.

 

The same is true for books. I started writing books as a teenager and I have been writing them ever since. In fact, one year I actually stopped to count how many books I had written so far, and was surprised to discover that there were nine of them.

 

I have books that are untyped. I have books waiting for me to remember they even exist. And I have several drafts of books that have gone through rewrites and revisions.

 

I am constantly writing, revising, and editing my books. Even if I don’t have a publisher for a book, I’m still working on fixing it up.

 

So when it comes to an opportunity to get a book published, you can bet that chances are good I will have something in my arsenal to submit.

 

This was the case with a publisher that eventually shut down. I sent her a bunch of book-length manuscripts that were ready to submit (five children’s books manuscripts among them). And she published three of those books in one year.

 

It was this particular thing that someone took notice of on social media and contacted me through email saying that I shouldn’t rush to get books published.

 

That particular email left me feeling puzzled. Why would someone see my post about having three books published in a year and automatically assume that I would rush to get a book published?

 

Because that is certainly NOT how I do things!

 

People who know me know that I tend to overthink things. I also tend to be paranoid. So of course I will occasionally revisit a manuscript I have written to revise, change, delete and sometimes even rewrite the whole thing again for some reason or another. As it is, I’m in the process of changing the genre of a YA novel I wrote. And another YA novel is getting a complete rewrite.

 

There is no rushing going on here.

 

When I feel that a book-length manuscript is ready to submit, then I will put it into my “books ready to submit” folder. But not before!

 

I didn’t respond to that person’s email, but only because they ended up touting their services about how they help authors get their manuscripts ready for publication. It was obviously spam. So, no thanks, I’ll pass.

 

I have my spidey sense telling me “this book I wrote needs work.”

 

I have my beta readers.

 

I have the MANY rounds of revision and edits that I put these manuscripts through.

 

I have editors editing my manuscripts.

 

And I have that other spidey sense that will let me know when a manuscript is ready.

 

No rushing to get a book published going on here. I’m all about quality, not quantity. As far as my books are concerned, I want to make sure that quality is there before I submit it for publication – or, in the case of self-publishing a book, start the process for self-publishing.

I Failed at My New Plan for the Freelance Writing But I Will Try Again

 

 

From Monday through Friday, there are several things that I do throughout my day. They usually fall under these categories:

 

Book Review (reading books I review, writing the reviews, posting and sharing reviews)

Writing (I try to write something new every day)

Freelance Writing (fiction, essays, poetry, articles)

Author (either writing, revising or editing a book – and doing book promo!)

Self-Publishing (rare but I do this sometimes)

The SPARREW Newsletter (gathering material, interviewing people, finding people to interview)

 

And, as Dawn Wilson, I’m usually reading or editing submissions for Twisted Dreams Press. I also try to do promo work for the press when that need arises.

 

(Note: Colclasure is my maiden name. All of my writings are published under this name. As Dawn Wilson, however, I am an editor and marketing rep. Wilson is my married name. I’m also a wife and mother!)

 

And in addition to publishing my own newsletter every month, I also publish and promote The Big Scream, which is the newsletter for Twisted Dreams Press. Unlike my own newsletter, these go out any time.

 

The work I do for both the press and my newsletter can take several hours to complete.

 

During the weekends, I do website updates, send out my latest Substack, do the book reviewing, hunt for new markets to submit to, work on my books, continue research for either a book or an article, and try to write something.

 

So, yeah, my days are pretty full. Which is why I’m not going to beat myself up too much over being unable to try something new with the freelance writing this week.

 

See, with the freelance writing, I was just submitting stuff. I hardly ever pitched any articles. Predictably, the work dried up, which was not good, given that I have recent financial problems. (A job I had my eye on to apply for won’t have any openings until September.) So, I tried to change things up a bit. With all of my market research, I was able to put together a list of markets to pitch every day of the week this week. And submit something. And write something.

 

Thing of it is, though, the stuff I wanted to submit this week was not up to snuff. They needed some serious revision! In fact, an essay I wrote was turned into an article which I needed to do more research for.

 

Another essay needs a lot of work, so that, too, was not submitted.

 

A short story I wrote also required more revision. After two rounds of revision, it still isn’t ready to submit!

 

And while I had ideas for articles and short stories to write this week, there were only so many of them which were written.

 

The reason? I didn’t have enough time in my day to do all that stuff, in addition to all that other stuff I do, along with my work for the press.

 

And I need to be there for my kids, too. And try to keep clean laundry and dishes in the house.

 

Yeah, life is pretty busy and my days are pretty full. So of course I was not able to perform my new plan for the freelance writing this week. I have been posting about my progress every day on BlueSky and Facebook.

 

Things worked out well for the first couple of days. Then things got busy! And my time with the work for the press is very important to me. In fact, I wanted to finish developmental edits on a manuscript today and thankfully, I was able to do that. And edit a short story. And read another submission. Got ‘em all done today.

 

But the new plan for the freelance writing? Not so much. I submitted a short story today, but I did not pitch as many articles or write certain stories for my book. The week started off strong but then I wasn’t able to do all the rest of the other things.

 

I won’t give up on those tasks I had planned for the week, though. I have kept all of those Post-It Notes with markets to submit to, articles to pitch, and stories to write. I’ll get them all done, too! At some point. Maybe after I get the newsletter out tomorrow – and even THAT might be going out late!

Make Your Words Count

 

One goal I had when I started this monthly writing challenge was to make all of the blog posts short. I have noticed that, with online content, shorter is better.

 

In order to bypass this demand for shorter content, a lot of companies and website owners started using this trick: Making each block of paragraphs shorter. These short paragraphs normally contained 2 or 3 sentences.

 

This visual trick enabled the content to appear “short.” A fast read.

 

Unfortunately, most of my posts ended up being longer than I wanted them to be. A lot of them were over 500 words. I guess I just had too much to say or there was a lot of information to share.

 

With blogs, you really have a lot of wiggle room with how short or long your posts can be. It’s entirely your choice.

 

Many blog writers have found, however, that shorter is usually better. Shorter gets more clicks. Shorter gets more reads. Shorter gets more shares.

 

And, in some cases, shorter is all you get.

 

With both freelance writing and content writing, I have been assigned a certain word count on assignments. Some had to be under 1000 words while others could be as long as 2000 words.

 

But in other cases, I have had to write shorter content. Some of them with as low as 300 words.

 

When you are in a situation like this, you have to make your words count. You have to be selective in your word choice.

 

Your writing must engage your reader. So if you only have a low amount of words available to use, you have to use active language. Avoid passive writing and writing that rambles. Delete the fluff. Omit irrelevant words.

 

Another thing to keep in mind for writing short content is to make sure you stick only to the facts. Don’t add opinions or suggestions. Get right to the point straight out the gate.

 

Additionally, for short content, you need to get creative with words. Instead of “a lot of” you can use “many” instead. Use “some” instead of “a handful.” Think of other, shorter ways to rephrase your writing.

 

While most readers may not have a problem with reading lengthy content, editors know what their readers want – and how long they want it. Therefore, most will assign a shorter word count to writers.

 

As far as blog posts and social media posts are concerned, the shorter, the better. Grab your readers’ attention and take them to your content, where they’ll see that a short piece awaits their reading pleasure. And for shorter content, especially for online content, it will be a pleasure for them to read.