Resilience in Publishing
Shortest month of the year, but full of some wonderful things! Let's talk about some highlights of February 2024!
For fun, sometimes I make my own covers. I don’t fancy myself a graphic designer, but am obviously an illustrator. This is a mock novel cover for a fake book.
Dirt
What’s going on over here and what am I working on?
Edits are consuming my life right now. It’s not the most exciting thing to think about and even less exciting to share about.
The fun thing I did was that cover. I hope you enjoy it!
Water
What’s helping nourish my mind and creativity right now?
Did you read the “Magic of Raina is Real” article by The Atlantic about Raina Telgemeier? It was wonderful and I really recommend it. I thought about it a lot after I finished it.
I got to speak at the Colorado State Capital this month to help Senator Lisa Cutter and Representative Junie Joseph launch the Freedom To Read Bill. Read more about this bill, my thoughts on book banning, and more on last week’s Substack here and also on my Website’s blog.
My books have often been called activism books. So much so, that it’s been a worry of mine that if I made a non-activist book, my “brand” would be in question. I’m a person though and my stories aren’t always activism related, but no matter how hard I try, I do always feel a call to action. Whenever I take those personality tests too, I’m always whatever identity is “the advocate” (INFJ anyone?).
All this to say, it was really such a treat to do more than volunteer and write impassioned words. I love both of those things, but I got to take a real stand and advocate for change with people who can make real legislative changes. I’m happy I got to put my money where my mouth is for such a good cause.
Books save lives. Book bans are detrimental to all readers.
Grow
The results of the hard labor.
I want to take a moment to talk about resilience in publishing. This month I got some frustrating news. I’m not going to say what it was, but it created a ripple effect that was briefly annoying. However, like any short frustration, it is now a drop of water in an ocean. It’s passed and the water has settled.
This got me thinking a lot about how resilient a person has to be to go into a creative career. We often think about that with acting. The sheer amount of rejection based on looks would be devastating. Publishing is similar… only the rejection can be on the voice of your work, the look of your art, your chosen topic, the marks you make with your pen. It can mean someone looking at your work and saying “it’s not for me.”
All my peers in publishing have been rejected. Actually, for a while, I was the only one I’d known who hadn’t faced nearly as much rejection as others. Though 10 years later, I have. Publishing is a career of near constant rejection. Your work receives scrutiny from agents, to editors, to copy editors, to art directors, to buyers, to marketing professionals, to professional reviewers, and eventually to at-home critiques with access to public reviews. At every single level of every single stage, a project is scrutinized from someone who isn’t the creator.
As a creator of a project, I’m my own worst critic. That’s a lot of feedback!
It can be hard to grow under such criticism. Sometimes I wonder if it’s even possible, and yet I have enough growth to prove you can. This dichotomy of feedback, setbacks, and growth has had me thinking a lot this month about how resilience is crucial in a publishing career.
So how do you continue on in the face of this much criticism?
I’m not sure I have the answer right now. If I find it, I’ll tell you.
Seedlings
Seedlings is the paid portion of Planting Seeds.
This month’s Seedlings Roundup features a discussion on mock novel covers with tips on how to make your own, even if you’re not an illustrator.
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