Connecting with Agents, Editors and Publishers by Jean Lauzier

 

Jean Lauzier has always been a writer but life only recently allowed her the time she desisred at the keyboard with her characters. She writes mainly mystery and fantasy but enjoys "playing with romance and western genres." When not writing, she spends  time keeping her Bonsai alive, learning Spanish and training her cat. Her short story collection, Six Pack of Murder is available on Amazon.

Jean is president of the East Texas Writer’s Association. During the tour, she'll be giving away at least three copies of Six Pack of Murder and three copies of the soon to be released Dark Descent. Be sure to leave a comment with your email address to be entered in the drawing.

Welcome to Mysterious Writers, Jean. It's good to have you join us here on the second day of the Mystery We Write blog tour. Tell us about connecting with agents, editors and publishers.

Thanks so much for having me on your blog today, Jean. I’m so excited to be here. And as I thought of what I’d like to share with your readers, I thought about something that meant a lot to me as a beginner writer, something that still is very much applicable today. Something a wise writer/mentor told me years ago.

It’s like selling apples and oranges. You have a basket of apples. They are beautiful, red apples. You polished them; made sure they had no worms. Perfect in every way. So naturally, you take your apples to the market.  Only thing…no one wants your apples. They all want and buy oranges. But just because those at the market are buying oranges, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong with your apples. It just means they want oranges that day.

Here’s how this applies to us as writers. Our writing is apples. The market is agents, editors and  publishers. And the reason they sent that rejection letter, they want oranges that day. Again, it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with what you were offering, it just wasn’t what the person wanted at that time.(Of course, you polished your prose, made sure it was as perfect as you could get it.)

I once heard rejection letters referred to as Negative Marketing Statements. And honestly, I like that term better. If you have done the work required to have a great product (story, novel, article) and the needed market research, then a rejection letter isn’t a terrible thing. It just means not here, not today, try somewhere else.
Sure we may get discouraged, but just realize, someone out there loves apples and can’t wait for you to meet them.

Thanks, Jean. You can learn more about Jean Lauzier at
her blogsite: http://underthetrollsbridge.blogspot.com

Website: www.jeanlauzier.com

Twitter: @JeanLauzier

Facebook: jeanlauzier2319

Email: jeanlauzier@gmail.com

For the complete Mysterious Writers' tour schedule go to http://jeansblogtour.blogspot.com/