The Old Never Gets Old

 

My 2014 poetry book

 

“Wow! That book was published in 2014!” This was a thought I had recently when I was looking for the publication date of one of my poetry books that I was promoting. And even though this book was published over 10 years ago, I was still going to promote it. Why? The book’s theme was still relevant. I mean, we do still care about our soldiers and veterans, right? As well as those who lost their lives while serving their country.

 

Relevance is something writers need to aim for when they are trying to get their work published. One thing I was often told about my Tips book was that the topic was evergreen. And while this is true, I have realized that, as I have been working on revising it for the third time, a lot of the material was not. In fact, it contained a lot of dated material, something that can happen to any nonfiction book. (I often keep hoping that this third revision of the book will be the last one, but who knows!)

 

But circling back to a book’s old publication date, the question remains: Should a writer retire their work after a number of years have passed since publication? I think it really depends on the type of work that is at issue here.

 

When it comes to a book, a lot of factors will decide if the writer should quietly stop putting their energy into promoting it. Some of those factors include whether or not the topic is relevant, if there is a demand for that kind of information or books with that theme, and if there is anything new related to that topic which the old edition has not yet covered. With the Tips book, for example, it never discussed AI. However, AI is a hot topic in the writing community, so it belongs in a book about writing (and I am including it in this particular book about writing).

 

As far as articles, essays, poems, and short stories are concerned, the quality of the work is what must stand out in order for it to withstand the test of time. People will always want to read a good story, poems which are well-written, and essays including lived experiences. This is why we still read the works of Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe even today. With nonfiction, old work is a reflection of the time it was published. For example, anyone who reads the writings of Benjamin Franklin will understand that his thoughts and opinions were all products of the time period they stemmed from. There is the knowledge that dated writing is, well, dated. Still, they serve a purpose; historians are interested in them because they are interested in reading material about certain time periods, and students will read them in order to complete assignments. So, in this way, the old may be old, but it is still relevant.

 

If a nonfiction book warrants an update, then it should be updated. Update the book before continuing to promote it.

 

But with poetry, fiction, essay collections, and plays? Never stop promoting them. Why? Because the old never gets old.

 

That 2014 book I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post is a poetry book. The theme is still relevant, and so is the content of the poems, so that book can still be promoted – yes, even 12 years after it has been published.

 

The same goes with any of my works of fiction, essays, and story collections. Promote, promote, promote.

 

Authors should never choose to stop promoting their work only because said work was published a X number of years ago. If the author knows the work is too dated or irrelevant, then of course they shouldn’t promote the work. But if the theme or the topic is still relevant, then by all means, keep promoting it.

 

Which is why I will always promote my poetry book about the seasons, because we’ll always have seasons. I will always promote my collection of YA horror stories because I know there are young adults out there who enjoy reading horror stories. And I will always promote my book about writing parents because there are always going to be writing parents.  

 

I’ll continue to submit YA horror stories for publication because there is still a demand for YA horror stories. I will continue to submit writing about the seasons, should I ever feel compelled to do so, because the topic is still relevant.

 

The point is that the writer should not decide to give up on wanting to get their work published or promoting their work just because the work is old or they tried a certain number of times to get it published but ended up in Rejection City. If your writing is still relevant or something that a certain demographic of readers will want to read, then keep going. Keep promoting it. Keep trying to get it published. 

 

I wrote a story in 2012 that was published in an anthology in 2025. I wrote a novella in 2011 that was published in 2025. (Alas, it is currently out of print, but I am hoping it will be back in print soon!)  

 

The writing may be old, but the demand for that kind of material isn’t. Update it if necessary, but don’t ever stop trying to get your work into print. You WILL find a home for it somewhere, so keep submitting it! 

 

I Don’t Only Submit to Paying Markets, But I Keep in Mind the Writers Who Do

 

Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com  via Pexels https://www.pexels.com

Before the month of August came around, I decided to take a break from not only my monthly newsletter, The SPARREW Newsletter, but also from my weekly Substack posts. My brother passed away close to the end of July and I needed time to focus on my grief. Plus, I had eye surgery coming up (or so I THOUGHT I did; it’s being rescheduled again! This time, possibly in September), so I did not want to stress over gathering material for my newsletter while recovering from eye surgery. (But rest assured, subscribers, that even with my eye surgery being in September, the September issue will STILL go out! I have a cut-off date of the 20 for every month on curating material for the newsletter, and the eye surgery will likely be AFTER the 20 and then that issue will go out on the 30 of September, which gives me a few days to focus on recovering from surgery!)

 

However, because there is a submission deadline coming up for one of the anthologies mentioned in previous issues of the Substack, I decided to take a break from my break to send out an “upcoming submission deadlines” issue tomorrow, August 18, to remind everyone about it. And because I recently gained 100 subscribers to my Substack (thank you, readers!), I am celebrating by throwing in other submission calls that also have forthcoming deadlines.

 

So, as I was gathering that material over the past couple of days, there is one call for submissions that made me pause.

 

This particular call for submissions did not pay writers. However, it was also hosting a contest, and only one lucky winner would receive $100.

 

That still counted as a paying opportunity for writers, right? Not in my book. Why? Because the odds of winning that contest and getting the $100 was seriously stacked up against anyone entering it, because they probably would receive a ton of submissions for it, making the competition fierce.

 

Even so, while I submit to both paying AND nonpaying markets, I understand that there are writers out there who ONLY submit to paying markets. I respect these writers, especially since I tried doing that once myself and I know how hard it can be to get an acceptance! I also keep these writers in mind when I am writing articles containing paying markets.

 

These writers would not be interested in the nonpaying markets! 

 

So in order to keep my own list of pending deadlines something that subscribers would want to know more about, I should only list the markets with forthcoming deadlines that pay writers.

 

This does not mean I frown upon the nonpaying markets. Heck, I used to be a nonpaying editor too! I have no ill will towards the nonpaying markets. They can go about doing their thing!

 

Also, the WOT anthologies which Twisted Dreams Press is still accepting submissions for only pays with a print copy of the anthology and not with money. With 70 writers in all 7 books, paying each writer with money would create bankruptcy! (Everything is out of pocket for us.) So until one of us gets an angel investor or someone makes a generous donation to the press or one of us wins the lottery, we can only pay our anthology writers with a print copy of the book.

 

But when I am the author of an article sharing about OTHER submission calls for writers, then I will list the paying opportunities. This will also apply to other submission calls I list in my Substack posts. I think that sharing only the paying opportunities for writers is my best bet, and what a majority of writers would be most interested in.

My essay collection on deaf parenting, Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent, has been published!

This month, something happened that I had been waiting for and hoping would happen for years: My deaf parenting book, Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent, was finally published! At long last, the book I spent years working on and more years trying to get published has NOW been published! Sometimes I can only look at the cover and think, Wow, it’s really a book!

It’s definitely been a long journey with this one. I tend to say that with so many of my books. Some took years to perfect and some took years to find a home. But I hung in there and it finally happened.

I started writing this book while still a writer for the newspaper SIGNews. This book actually started off as a blog on my web site and I got some emails from readers who enjoyed reading my posts. The feedback made me think that I could take those blog posts to the next level and transform them into a book. At this time, I’d already had essays on being a deaf parent published elsewhere – in Mothering Magazine, in the DPPi Journal and even in an issue of SIGNews. But I really didn’t have a steady stream of essays on deaf parenting going out. I was focused on freelance writing and SIGNews at the time. So I decided to do a book of essays on deaf parenting. After all, I am a deaf parent! That pretty much made it easier for me to write about it.

I often say “I have so many stories to tell.” This is true of my experiences as a deaf parent. You’ll get to read them in this book.

There are two reasons why this book took so long to get published. As an author, I must admit I am a perfectionist when it comes to the books I write. The book HAS to be perfect. I’ll rewrite chapters or even a whole book several times before I think it’s ready to go. I get feedback through several readers, revise more where needed, and try to get even MORE feedback. A manuscript can go through several drafts, several readers and several rounds of edits before it can be ready to submit. And even then, it goes through more edits and revisions after acceptance.
 
Another thing that delayed publication was finding a home for this book. That was not easy. A lot of publishers, even those specializing in deaf products, only wanted books by famous people – even when it came to a book on deaf parenting. I’m not Marlee Matlin or Dr. I. King Jordan, so that made it a little difficult for me to get this book to certain publishers who wanted any and all books on a deaf topic. With no luck there, I considered self-publishing the book. My friend in London suggested I send it to her publisher, but they were closed to submissions. I kept them in mind, but months passed and nothing happened. Then I “met” John Lee Clark through HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and I interviewed him for one of my WIPs. Just so happened to turn out that John was deaf, too (well, deaf and blind), and he told me about this company he was reading manuscripts for called Clerc Scar. I sent him my book and he liked it and I was told they wanted to publish it. Several months later, I got an email saying Clerc Scar was shutting down, so it was back to finding a publisher again.

At this point, I’d had books published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. This independent publisher has been AMAZING to work with and I get along real well with Denise Bartlett and Charlotte Holley. They’re great!  (Denise also edits the poetry books that I self-publish and Charlotte designs the covers.) I have been very happy with GSP so, when this book was once again up for grabs, I asked Denise if she wanted to see it. She said yes and, shortly after I sent it to her, GSP offered me a contract for the book. I was overjoyed!

And now this book is at long last published. It is REALLY published! I am just so thrilled. And I am grateful to everyone who has helped make this happen, especially to Denise and Charlotte for taking this book and working with me to make it an essay collection I can be proud of.

Of course, my experiences as a deaf parent don’t end there. As it happens, I originally planned to only write about my experiences with one child, and even then up until she was 5 years old. Then I had a second child and there were more stories to tell. (And some things have changed, too. For example, in the book, I talk about how hard it was to get my son Jesse to use sign language. Most of the time, we had to lipread him. These days, however, he fingerspells practically everything he says to his deaf parents.) In the event I have more stories to tell, they’ll go up on my Palms to Pines blog. For now, there is this book, and I am so grateful I have these memories to share with my children from their younger years for a very long time. Here’s to many more!

You can purchase an electronic copy of Parenting Pauses: Life as a Deaf Parent through online retailers as well as from Gypsy Shadow Publishing here and you can get the print here.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is step away

This week, I have been working on trying to fix up an essay in my deaf parenting book. This particular essay received harsh criticism from a beta reader (well, "harsh" as in "she never sent back any feedback on it after I sent an essay that had the same mistakes she'd complained about in another essay"). Even though I don't dispute what the essay says, I do see how it is saying what I want it to say in the wrong way. One thing I have learned during this lovely torture of revising the essays is that some of them are just "preachy." I might as well be standing on a soapbox spouting all of this stuff!

No, that's not the kind of book I want it to be. I don't want it to be some "manifesto" or "mission statement for deaf parents." It's an essay collection. I wanted it to tell stories, in the form of essays, which will convey the messages and insights which I am trying to get across to readers. If it's preachy, they won't read it. But if it's entertaining, and kind of like a story, then that might attract more attention.

Of course, it's not easy trying to write about experiences that took place 6-7 years ago with complete accuracy. I have been literally racking my brain trying to remember things, just so I could relate what I learned during the early years of being a deaf parent in a way that is more true-to-life. I have to keep asking myself, what exactly happened at that point in time that made me reach this conclusion in the essay? What was I trying to say? What was I doing? What was I thinking?

Fortunately, I used to be a heavy journal writer, so looking back on old journals has helped. Still, a lot of my journals were destroyed after I moved out of California (thank you, neighbors who refused to allow us access to our personal belongings in the garage!), but some things are still fresh in my mind. Also, old e-mails help, and I was able to review all of these things to help me revise the essays. (Yes, I do save old e-mails! LOL I even have old chats saved, too, but don't really read them.)

But ONE ESSAY was giving me big trouble. I tried and tried to revise it, but to no avail. I just didn't get it "right."

Even with one revision I did this morning, I hated it. I hated what I was writing. I just KNEW it was not how the essay should be. I kept writing it, anyway, because I knew I had to get this "junk" out of my head first. Before I could do anything else with this essay.

But halfway through the essay, I had to stop working on it. After all, nothing will get accomplished if I ended up starving to death!

So I got up from the desk and went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I'd only had coffee, which usually helps me to get through writing something decent in the mornings. But this time, coffee failed me. Maybe actual food would help. I grabbed a box of cereal, got a bowl out of the cabinet, watched as the cereal poured into the bowl...then it struck me. It literally came to me like a bolt of lightning. I knew EXACTLY how the essay should be! I knew EXACTLY how I should write it. Eureka! I've got it!

I hurriedly went through my meal, opened a new document on the computer, and my fingers started flying over the keys as the words came pouring out. I didn't care for typos. I didn't care about "that darn Shift key" sticking again. I just typed. And typed and typed.

Gee, this is getting long, I thought, noting I was now on page 3. But I couldn't stop now. There were more words to type! More things to say!

When I finished typing what I HOPED would be the final revision of that essay, a wave of satisfaction went through me. THIS is how the essay should be, I thought. It was perfect, similar to the way I wrote the others. (Like creative nonfiction. Emphasis on..."creative.") I didn't care if I did not get the exact words I said correct; how the heck could I remember exactly what I said 7 years ago?? It wasn't possible. Still, I did use quotes that got across what I was asking about. I give myself permission to misquote myself. (Ha!) The quotes were still good and the essay got across everything I wanted it to say, which is what the original version tried to say. Of course, it needs editing and probably some tightening. But at least the foundation was in place. I got it right this time, on my fourth try.

And all it took to survive that week-long revision nightmare was just stopping the writing and stepping away from it for a while.