Hooray for New Media by Barbara Quinn

I received a check for three stories, for their audio and digital rights recently. I’m grateful I was able to make those sales. If you write you spend a lot of time being rejected and that stinks. You do get used rejection and learn to slough it off. Sure it’s true that rejection toughens you up and makes you more determined to succeed. But after many rejections it becomes difficult to think positively about your work, difficult to keep on sending it out to different places. When you keep getting slammed it’s hard not to duck and cover, or assume an attitude of waiting for the next blow. You have to learn to steel yourself for those rejections. Sometimes I put off sending out revisions, or making changes that were asked for, simply because I’m not ready to have someone say, thanks, but it’s still not right for us. It’s a delicate balancing act we do to keep our egos whole.

That’s why I’m grateful for the place that bought my stories. The work will be out there for people to buy. Selling those stories makes me feel good about my writing and gives me a boost. I’m working on my latest novel with more focus and energy. A a book called The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield deals with this artistic problem of winning your creative battles. It helps to know that others also struggle with this fear of moving forward.

The beauty of living in these times of many available media is that there are so many more outlets for writers to sell their work. It’s confusing and hard to keep up with the new outlets, but it’s definitely better for writers now, than in the past. Computers, iPods, and iPhones provide markets for stories and books. Ebooks are growing in popularity. There are markets for two minute stories that go over the phone lines. In Japan there’s a robust cell phone novel market. Having lots more places to submit to is a good thing. And being accepted by one of them, well, it doesn’t get better than that.