{"id":1982,"date":"2008-12-17T03:21:25","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T03:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shilohwalker.wordpress.com\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2008-12-17T03:21:25","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T03:21:25","slug":"the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/12\/the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"The question&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/icanhascheezburger.com\/2007\/08\/21\/thinking-cat\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/08\/thinking-cat-is-thinking.jpg?resize=330%2C248\" alt=\"thinking-cat-is-thinking.jpg\" width=\"330\" height=\"248\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nmore <a href=\"http:\/\/icanhascheezburger.com\">animals<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">It&#8217;s a bad thing when an author runs out of author copies&#8230;especially when she really needed one.\u00a0 Or two.\u00a0 It&#8217;s even worse when it&#8217;s in the middle of a bunch of slush and goop (not quite snow, not as pretty) falling from the sky.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">And during the middle of the Christmas shopping season?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Sigh.\u00a0 Although seriously, a trip to the bookstore is always good, right?\u00a0 Hit three of them, found the books I needed at the first one, but since I was in the area, figured I might as well sign stock.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">One of the cashiers at the first Borders I stopped at mention he did some writing himself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Then he asks&#8230; <span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\"><strong>THE QUESTION<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 The question&#8230;the one that no author can answer the same way, I don&#8217;t think.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><em>So how hard was it to get published<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">I went thru my little spiel, I kind of slipped in through a back door&#8230;got into EC right before it took off in a big way, I was in the right time, the right place, doing the right thing&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Then I shrugged and told him really, it seems like most published author stories have that in common.\u00a0 Having the right story, getting it in front of the right editor, at the right time.\u00a0 Things that were selling three years ago aren&#8217;t selling now (or as much) but things that weren&#8217;t selling three years ago are selling.\u00a0 So much depends on timing, so much depends on the story&#8230;and so much depends on the editor who sees your story.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">I had a number of editors pass on one particular book that was very important to my career and if there wasn&#8217;t one editor who looked at it and saw something she liked, I don&#8217;t know if I would been doing what I&#8217;m doing right now.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Lots of luck.\u00a0 Lots of timing.\u00a0 Lots of persistence.\u00a0 Because unless you&#8217;re really lucky and you&#8217;ve got lots and lots of good karma-type energy piled up, just waiting for you, I don&#8217;t know how likely it is that the very first story will sell to the very first editor.\u00a0 Yeah, I think it&#8217;s happened, but it&#8217;s one of those things that doesn&#8217;t happen very often.\u00a0 So persistence comes in handy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Because if you&#8217;ve got a good story, then you have to keep getting out to people.\u00a0 That&#8217;s the only way it&#8217;s going to get in front of the <em>right<\/em> people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>more animals It&#8217;s a bad thing when an author runs out of author copies&#8230;especially when she really needed one.\u00a0 Or two.\u00a0 It&#8217;s even worse when<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shilohwalker.com\/website\/2008\/12\/the-question\/\" class=\"more-link\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The question&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10161045129738658_54762468447":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[542],"tags":[572],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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