Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 194

Stephenie Meyer video (Borders Media)

Mainly geared toward beginning/young writers and readers, but still interesting.

 

Shannon Hale: laminated all her rejection letters into one long roll

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According to this bio, it took Shannon Hale 19 years and dozens of rejections to get her first book (The Goose Girl) published.

Looking at Shannon’s “Path To Publication” timeline on her website, though, it doesn’t look as if the 19 years included actual submission time. The Goose Girl, by the way, is one of my all-time favourite books.

Here’s an excerpt from her writing history page about The Goose Girl:

1999—Got idea for the goose girl. Wrote first 75 pages. Threw it all away.

2000—Writing 5 pag

Agatha Christie: first book rejected more than 20 times

Agatha Christie’s first mystery novel received over 20 rejections, and then her first publisher, Bodley Head, sat on her book for 18 months before agreeing to publish it. She went on to write a further 90 titles.

Christie has been called by the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind, along with William Shakespeare. Her work has been translated into more languages than Shakespeare, while The Mousetrap, written as a bir

Dr. Seuss: first book rejected 27 times

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Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, had his first book (And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street) rejected 27 times before finally being accepted by Vanguard Press.

An excerpt from one of his rejection letters:

“…too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.”

Since then, his 44 children’s books have been translated into more than 15 languages, selling over 200 million copies.

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Sources:
Cat In The Hat: Dr. Seuss Biography
Wikipedia entry on Dr. Seuss
BethanyRo

Dear Literary Ladies…

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Just discovered Dear Literary Ladies. What a wonderful idea…creating an “advice column” where famous women authors from the past answer writing-related questions. Kudos to Nava Atlas for launching this site!

 

Michael Crichton took eight years to write Jurassic Park

When ReadersRead.com asked Crichton how long it takes him to write a novel, on average, he replied:

There is no way to say, it varies so much. The Great Train Robbery was three years. Sphere was 20 years. Jurassic was eight years. Disclosure was five years. Usually, an idea “cooks” in my head for a very long time before I write it.

Crichton’s first bestseller, The Andromeda Strain, was published while he was still a medical student; he started writing paperback thrillers to help pay for med scho

John Grisham: first novel rejected 28 times, advises writers to aim for a page a day

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When John Grisham started writing, he was working 60-80 hours a week as a lawyer, but he woke up at 5 a.m. each morning so he could have one hour to write. It took him three years to write A Time To Kill this way.

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time To Kill, was rejected by 16 agents and a dozen publishers before being taken up by the small Wynwood Press. According another source, Grisham says he was rejected by “thirty so-and-so” printers and “thirty so-and-so” editors.

The DAY after Grisham compl

Library Boy (streaming version)

Boxstr.com seems to have gone MIA, so I’ve set up a streaming version of my song at Archive.com instead:

Lyrics and more info about the song are on the Urban Tapestry page about Library Boy. Singer is the fabulous Jodi Krangle from Voiceoversandvocals.com/. The accompaniment is pretty crude/imperfect (by yours truly — my guitar-wimpy arm tendons are the reason my group doesn’t perform this song anymore), and the track was mainly put together in hopes that some of our musician friends might want

Morning Coffee

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CARTOON EMBED CODE:


(Before embedding, see my cartoon licensing info.)

Will Tweetfests replace author book tours?

According to Wired’s Clive Thompson, we need to stop thinking about the future of publishing and think instead about the future of reading.

Are creative writing workshops a bad idea?

Note: I comb publishing news sites every morning for my Writersmarket.com column. Morning Coffee links to stories that don’t really fit into

1000/5000 Words A Day Challenge Check-In

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As I become more conscious about how I use my time, I’m quickly discovering how easy it is to fritter away time on admin, e-mail, blog-reading and other activities that may be related to work but are still spent NOT WRITING.

So how have you all been doing with your challenges?