by Kelly Carey

​Any writer who has been around the query block once or twice, knows rejections are a part of the process. Getting a rejection can have you shoving that manuscript into a folder far away and out of sight. 

Don’t do it!

Instead, employ the Boomerang Submission Strategy. The same day you get those infuriating “thanks but no thanks” replies, send that manuscript back out to the next dream agent and/or editor on your wish list.

That manuscript was a complete, fully revised, and polished piece of work that you submitted with confidence and hope.  A single rejection, in fact, I would argue a dozen rejections, should not be enough to warrant a delay in sending the manuscript back out on its journey to publication.  

The danger in overreacting to rejection letters is that a single denial can slam your manuscript into an unproductive holding pattern. I’ve done it. After a rejection, I’ve tucked many manuscripts away. My mind set at the time was that I would look at it again after my wounded ego had healed.  It was often a shock to run across that folder again and realize that I had let three months or even three years go by before I had considered myself “healed”. Worse, when I have re-read the rejected manuscript I found that I still had confidence in the story. The same confidence that had me submitting it in the first place. Only now, I had wasted months and sometimes years letting the manuscript sit stagnant in a folder.

As an alternative, last year, I started employing the Boomerang Submission Strategy. As soon as a submitted manuscript came back, I sent it right back out again.

A few caveats. First, this strategy works only if you have fully vetted and revised your story before you’ve sent it out. Do your revisions. Seek out advice from a critique partner and/or critique group, preferably more than one group and more than a single read. Second, this strategy is most effective when the rejection letters that come back are form letters with very little or no actual constructive advice. Things like “it doesn’t fit our list at this time” or “it didn’t resonate enough with me” are not really red flags for surrender or an indication of the need for a major rewrite. Finally, you need to be precise when you toss your boomerang ...er... I mean manuscript out into the publishing world. Choose your target agents and editors carefully, check out their wish lists, read their submission requirements, and be sure your manuscript is hitting the mark. Don't fling with reckless abandon, but with the skill and precision of a professional writer. 

If the denial letter is detailed and offers true constructive advice, you can pause and consider. BUT do not attempt a massive revision after a single negative comment unless your writing self, to the core, feels the strength of the advice.  That said, I would recommend setting a tight time-frame on how long you will hold onto your manuscript before you put it out on submission again. Give yourself a week or maybe a month and then Boomerang! 

Letting a story languish in a folder simply because it hasn’t yet found its ideal agent and/or editor is a colossal waste of time. So try the Boomerang Submission Strategy and let your manuscript fly! 

~by Amanda Smith

I have always had a gut feeling that writing poetry is a precursor to writing well.  Only recently, while preparing a poetry workshop for middle school students, did I realize how strongly I believe in the poetry connection.

During my kids’ baby and toddler years, I didn’t have the strength, time, or mental capacity (Mommy brain, anyone?) to write long pieces. I pushed writing to the very outer circle of my priorities, but somewhere in my youngest’s second year the need to write wiggled its way right into the center of my being. I jotted down ideas, struggles, joys, and observations in free verse. As I played with words, clapped rhythms, and rearranged sentences, within me, something awoke again. And it grew. It grew into picture books, and early readers, and novels.

Even all these years and manuscripts later, the poetry that called me from my writer’s slumber is still relevant. Because what we learn in writing and studying poetry, translates to every kind of writing.

What do we gain when we write poetry?

• Self-discovery
  •  The style and length parameters of poetry compel us to promptly find the heart of who we are in the moment, and what we want to express. The ability to dig for heart is essential in plotting and character development.

• Economic language use
  • Writing within the limits of poetry, we learn that every word counts, so we’d better pick the right ones. Writing poetry hones our ability to recognize the right word.

• Self-expression
  • Writing poetry is an excuse to feel all the feels. Remember those angsty teenage poems in the back of your high school notebooks? (I refuse to believe I was the only one.) Pouring emotions onto a page in poetic form, allows writers to play with expression. What is too melodramatic? How and when do I turn the volume down? What happens to the impact of a piece when I turn the emotional volume down? Different characters express emotions on different levels. Have you written poetry from your characters’ point of view? It might help you narrow down their voice, or  you might discover something about their emotional state.
• Unlocking imagination
  • Even though poetry is constraining in form, thematically, anything goes. Writing down silliness or sometimes lyrical nonsense accesses a playfulness in the brain – that part that asks “What if?”

• Sensory awareness
  • Because poetry leans heavily on sensory perception, when we write poetry we pay more attention with all our senses. We learn to think beyond sight and hearing. We learn to link emotion and atmosphere to senses.
  • And since there is also no room to tell, we learn to show.

• Lyrical language
  • Poetic devices translate to lyrical writing in prose.

I spent a big part of Monday writing limericks. I can’t remember when last I had so much fun. The silliness of it all, within the seriousness of the form. The absolute thrill of finding just the right rhyming words to deliver that guffaw in the last line. Playfulness unlocking imagination and humor. Play, play, play.

South African poet Carina Stander challenged herself in high school to write a new poem every second Sunday.  She still does that. Ame Dyckman regularly tweets haiku-like observations. Kate DiCamillo often posts lyrical reflections on social media. Jane Yolen starts every work day by writing a poem. Considering their careers, I have to believe they're onto something. We need to shake this pressure that everything we write has to be for the book, or go in the book.

Will you explore the poetry connection with me? I’m challenging myself to produce a poem a week. Come join me. Our play has purpose.
 

By Francine Puckly

Like many of you, I take my continuing education and improvement of my craft seriously. I attend numerous workshops and writing conferences each year, and I collect handouts and scribble down pages of helpful notes as presenters take me through plotting and character development exercises, marketing tips and Scrivener tutorials. It’s a wealth of information. But what happens once I’m home? The notes are stacked on a desk or worse…tucked away in haphazard fashion, never to be seen nor heard from again.

As much as we itch to get back to writing, finding our groove after the summer can be challenging. Here are a few strategies that help me focus my writing for the last quarter of the year.

• Find your desk

This is always my starting point. Finding my desk includes the filing of papers, and shelving of books, and general cleaning of my office. It is organizing files in ways that work for me. It is getting a physical space ready for productivity, whether it is a mostly stationary space like mine, or a portable one, like Francine’s. (the-portable-office.html) But it is more than that. It is also finding where I left off. I often read through the last couple of stories I had worked on before I had left my desk. I revisit my submission spreadsheets and query letters. It is mostly about finding my inner-desk, that place in my brain that is all about writing

• Aggressive goals

Once my space is in order, I like to pull close my goals and schedule.  On my schedule, I black out days that I know will be writing duds, such as holidays or scheduled work days, and then I aggressively write the remainder of my yearly goals into my schedule. Now, I know I might not make it. Yes, the unexpected will happen. I most likely will be called in to work more often than I anticipated. But I have my best-case scenario set up.

by Francine Puckly
 
Many of us are blessed with dedicated writing and creating spaces. The rest of us are not. Or maybe we are required to work in a difference place for a brief period of time or perhaps we’ve decided to go on a writer’s retreat. Regardless of the reason, it pays to have our projects organized for portability, whether we’re traveling to the living room, the library, or another state.
 
While I have a dedicated writing space (my bedroom), I often squeeze my writing in and around the rest of my family’s schedule. That could be at a baseball field, the dance school parking lot or the dentist’s office. I also love to sprawl out at parks or outdoor cafes on mild days, hunker down at the local library on rainy days, or get into a groove at the local bookstore while I tackle plot or character development issues.
 
Prior to this summer, I probably had an 80% success rate of packing the correct work material when I worked away from home. Sometimes I caught the oversights while still in the garage. But other times I would be settled at a library table when I discovered missing pieces. I knew this summer had to be different. I had to have a 100% success rate.
 
After an extensive knee reconstruction, my college-aged, working-in-Boston, can’t-drive-for-seven-weeks daughter would need me to taxi her—and wait for hours at a time—on a daily basis. It was unacceptable for me to be stranded somewhere waiting for her without the proper writing materials. But I also didn’t want to waste time packing, unpacking, and repacking my files—and worrying that I was forgetting something. There was way too much room for error with that system.
 
Order, complete order, was needed. I spent the better part of May organizing my electronic files and then turned my attention to my paper files. Every last piece of paper was filed. And my paper files mirrored my electronic files, so that items could be located quickly.
 
But to be truly portable, my paper files required the right equipment. After consulting internet resources and a few organizing books, I decided the tools required to make this happen were extra-capacity, reinforced hanging folders, manila (or decorative!) files, and a portable hanging file tote.

Switching between projects became a snap. All of my hanging files were organized the same way, and I could pop a file in or out of the tote.
 
The last step to peace of mind was establishing a list of all the little items that had to come along with me each day in a separate messenger bag. I “laminated” this list using packaging tape. Your list might look different than mine, but these were my essentials:

• Blue/black pens
• Index Cards
• Post-it Notes
• Wide-Ruled Composition Notebook
• Tissues
• Pain Reliever
• Water bottle
• Lunch/snacks
• Wallet
• Sunglasses
• Glasses
• Lip balm
• Sunscreen
• Umbrella
• Sweater for overzealous air-conditioning and/or jacket for rainy days
• Laptop, case, cords
• iPod/earbuds
• One magazine

 
While this level of detail might seem like overkill, I only had to create the list once. Each morning I scanned  my bag and checked off the list. I took the thinking out of packing and poured that energy into my manuscripts instead.
 
So if you’re taking your writing on the road, I hope these suggestions will help make your portable life stress-free! And happy writing…wherever the day may take you.
 
~ Francine

By Allison Pottern Hoch
 
If you’re a regular here at 24 Carrot, you’re no stranger to setting and reaching for your goals when it comes to your writing. But why should that end with the final page of your manuscript? Marketing is how you get that big, beautiful book in front of readers.
 
Having marketing goals helps you to focus on your strengths and make the best use of your time and energy. Because you want to be diving into the next writing project, not spending every day on a new marketing plan. So where to begin?
 
BIG GOALS:
Identify Your Audience: Remember when you started your book and you thought you knew what it would look like when you were done? Odds are it’s become something bigger and stranger and more exciting than you ever imagined. Your audience is the same – your work will touch people you never thought possible. So now it’s time to really dig in and identify who those readers are and how to best reach them (I have some tips here).
 
Know Your Why: With each marketing strategy you try — interviews, blog posts, events — you should ask yourself ‘why?’ What are you hoping to get out of the experience? What are you hoping your readers will get from it? This can help you target specific venues and outlets that meet your marketing goals.
 
Play to Your Strengths: There’s a time and place for all kinds of marketing. But where should you put the most energy? You don’t have to do everything to have success. Identify the strategies that get you most excited and play to your strengths. Public speaking? Social media? Blogging? {For example, I love talking, teaching, and writing so I host workshops and write for a blog}.
 
SMALL GOALS:
Start now: You can begin building your fan base right now, even without a publication. Build your online network through social media and your in-person network through conferences, writing communities, and local bookstores and libraries. Lay the groundwork now so that when you do have that book coming out, you’ll have ready and willing co-marketers.
 
Support others: Promote others as you would like them to promote you. Attend events, review books, buy books, and let people know about the writing and authors you love.
 
Make a plan: Get out a blank calendar and colored pens. Identify key dates (publication date, bookstore events, relevant holidays, etc.) and how you need to plan around to market your work. Booking events? Posting social media updates? Sending out an evite? Put it all on your calendar.
 
Set aside time to market yourself: This is hard. You want to be writing, I get it. But you can’t cram the marketing in last minute – it doesn’t work that way. Build time into your weekly schedule to promote yourself, your work, and your events.
 
Allison Pottern Hoch is a writer and event coach with over eight years of experience in marketing, publicity, sales, and event planning. She spent four years promoting academic titles at The MIT Press before she went to work for Wellesley Books as a bookseller and event coordinator. She organized, hosted, and promoted over 150 events during her tenure, ranging in size from intimate workshops and lunches to multi-media events with over 700 attendees. She’s worked with veteran authors, celebrities, and debut authors. This September, Allison is teaching a Building Events workshop at Grub Street and leading a bookstore panel at The Writer’s Loft. For more information on her workshops and coaching services, visit http://events.pottern.com

By Amanda Smith

So, you have been writing and revising and polishing and editing. You also attended an SCBWI conference or two, and printed out the highly coveted faculty submission guidelines. You poured over editor and agent names, highlighted deadlines, and bookmarked MSWL. And then you stuffed the guidelines in the bottom drawer along with your manuscripts, and climbed under the covers with a flashlight and a book. Because putting your precious story OUT THERE is just too much.

Or life got too busy. It was spring, and then the school year ended, and then it was summer, and then the school year started, and phew! And now you’ve missed all the deadlines. Oh, well, next year after the conference you will do better.

NO!

Make a plan. Today. Because your beautiful story, your heart spilled onto the page, will never ever see the light of day if you don’t send out those submissions. Lots and lots of submissions. And if you don’t cowboy up and deal with those rejections. Lots and lots of rejections. And keep on sending out submissions until you get the call or the email. And then there’ll be dancing. But first. Submissions.

​So, here’s my plan: (Because yeah, this is totally me.)

• Pages and pages of printed words make me nervous (except if it’s a story, then it is awesome). I need summaries, lists, and calendars where deadlines are clearly marked.  I drew up a sheet to summarize the basic agent/editor info. On the calendar section, I mark each editor’s deadline, so I don’t miss any.
• The final column on this sheet, is where the real work begins. I pour over all my submission-ready manuscripts, and research each agent, or editor and their publishing house to find possible manuscripts matches. It’s okay to have more than one manuscript next to someone’s name at this stage. The more research you do, the clearer it will become which agents/ editors are good matches for your work. Some agents or editors will NOT match any of your work, or your personality. It’s okay. You don’t have to submit to everybody. 
• Please, don’t submit to everybody.

~By Amanda Smith

When I spend a day in a classroom as a substitute teacher, I always feel as if I’m the one learning something new. A couple of weeks ago, when I was elementary art teacher for the day, I was reminded of some very important writing truths.

The art teacher had left instructions for the Kindergarten class to add a few finishing touches to their art projects. When they were done, I dismissed them to “free draw.” All of them huddled around the big, round open studio table, grabbing scissors, glue, string, construction paper and markers. All except one boy. He clenched the Sharpie he had used for his art project tightly in his fist and asked if he could write a story instead.

“Go for it.” I said.

“The Troll Sbardee,” he wrote.

“The Troll Story,” I read.

“Oh, I got that right? I wasn’t sure,” he said.

“Well, actually, that’s not quite how you spell it, but when we write for fun, that doesn’t matter so much,” I said.

He beamed. Ah, a kindred spirit.

He went to work writing his sbardee, and I roamed the room, admiring art work, untangling balls of yarn,  and reminding kids not to run with scissors. Towards the end of the period my little writer came up to me, proudly waving a paper. Happy clusters of black Sharpie letters danced on both sides of the page.

“I finished!” he said. “I finished my story.”

“That’s wonderful. Will you read it to me?”

He held the paper in both his little hands and in a ceremonial voice, read his story of the princess troll. It was funny. It was action packed. And someone got eaten. It was perfect.

“That is a great story,” I said. “You have some interesting characters. I would love to see what they look like. Do you think you can draw a picture of them?”

He scrutinized me, with a most serious little face. And then he said, “This is a word story. This is not a story for pictures. I don’t have time for that.”
 
Lessons learned, dear fellow writers:
 1. Write for fun! Get the story on the page in happy word clusters. You’ll have plenty of time during the revision stage to worry about spelling, sentence structure, arc, pacing, and all those other academic things. But first, just enjoy the act of creating.

2. Know what you’re writing. You might not know what you are creating when you start, but sometime during the process, ask the important questions.

• What genre am I writing?
• Who is my audience?
• What is the heart of my story?

3. Stick to your guns. Critique partners are gifts from heaven. Great feedback can place you squarely on the right track. But ultimately, you know what you want to accomplish, and where you want your story to go. Suggestions are just that. Make sure to stay true to your vision.

4. Manage your time wisely.
​
But mostly. Have fun writing those sbardees!