I’m not crazy about giving away time. After twelve published books it feels like I ought to be paid for speaking and teaching. Yet more and more I’m learning that what you do for free often pays off best.

A couple of stories make the point: A writers group at Leisure World contacted me to speak at a writers day–the first big event of their new writers club. Nobody offered to pay me, but I agreed to go anyway. I was one of several speakers, and sold a few books–four or five. Not many, but I felt good about the day. I felt I’d really connected with the group.

It seems I did. Weeks later they called me again, this time to give a talk on memoirs. They asked how much I wanted to be paid–always a tough question to answer. How much is too much? But I asked for $75.00, and the club readily agreed. Expecting 20-30 people, I was flabbergasted to find a crowd of over 70. This time, to the group’s excitement, I gave away some books–but I also sold about a dozen.

Now the group wants me back again, for two in-depth, all-day memoir workshops. With no fuss at all, the price has gone up to $150 each. Even so, it’s not the money that’s so exciting, but the fact that this group and I have made an exciting connection. We all expect the best out of each other, and my stints down there have become a lot of fun and not much work. For everything I gave away in the beginning, I’ve been repaid many times over.

And just today I heard a wonderful story about Landgrove Inn in Vermont–an inn I’ve stayed at many times and with whom I’m now engaged for my second writer’s workshop. It seems Landgrove agreed to host a charity event for a worthy cause, offering not only their site, but also picking up the bar tab. In what could have been a losing event, with perhaps 50 to 100 people, the Chocolate Festival attracted 500 people and earned $30,000–giving the inn free publicity up and down the state of Vermont. For the price of some liquor, they received what will turn out to be a hundred-thousand-dollars worth of publicity. You couldn’t BUY an event that attracted so many people from so many Vermont towns. Because of their generosity, little-known Landgrove Inn has suddenly become one of the premier inns in the state.

Whenever I consider the advisability of doing something “for free,” I think twice about turning it down. The payoff is sometimes in doubt, and never the reason you do anything. On the other hand, often enough the good-luck gods are right there with a reward.

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Maralys Wills has written some successful books, but I had never heard of her until I read this fascinating, entertaining, and informative guide to writing and publishing … I mean that as a compliment because I found “Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead” to be full of wonderful information, for beginners and accomplished authors, no matter what type of writing they do.
… I have read many books about writing, and many autobiographies
of writers, but I don’t know anyone who has blended the two together in such a coherent and readable format. Many authors have written wonderful guides about how to write—Ayn Rand and E.M. Forster come to mind—others have written books about how the publication process works—James A. Michener—and others have tried to separate life and writing into two parts of one book—Stephen King’s “On Writing.” All these books have value as a guide to writers, but none of them have so perfectly blended writing and publishing advice with autobiography.
Maralys Wills has carried us through her entire publishing career, telling us what she learned along the way with relevant examples, allowing us to see her progression as a writer, to feel her rejections, and to cheer her publishing offers. Even her chapter on small writing goofs, a chapter to benefit beginning writers, had many points in it that polished writers will find instructive. And accomplished writers will find her an equal to empathize with, seeing their own experiences in many of hers…
Read the full review here.

When did you ‘know’ you were a writer?
Long before I sold my first article, (about our sons’ adventures in hang gliding), I saw myself as a writer. As I collected 129 rejection slips for poems, essays, stories, and first-hand accounts, I wondered how many rejection slips it would take to sell something. In my mind it was always “when,” never “if.” Still, writing for money altered my title. Now I was an author. Before, I’d been a mother with a typewriter.

How would you describe your style of writing?
Straightforward. Vivid. Full of scenes and vignettes. Often humorous. A story-teller’s quest for the unusual, the humorous, the dramatic, the ironic. But securely anchored in the real world.

What is your writing process?
Except for publicity chores (which are all too time-consuming), I write whenever I can find the time. Sometimes I push things away to “make” time. When I’m deeply involved in a project, I let ordinary “living” go by the board. Laundry, shopping, cooking—they all wait. I have no schedule. Every stolen hour in front of the computer becomes my “schedule.”

What was your path to publication?
No special path. At first I simply sent things out (129 things), until United Airlines Mainliner magazine “bit.” From then on, every published book was achieved a different way. I was agented for my first nine books, yet for five of them the sale would not have occurred except for something I did myself. Even with an agent, you have to be part of the process.

What is your favorite self-marketing idea?
Speeches. There is no second choice. I have searched high and low for something that works as well as giving speeches, but have yet to find it.

8. What are the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer?
Read the whole interview here.

Words of wisdom:
Writing is like creating a brick wall. You want people to see the bricks, but not the mortar. Yet it’s the mortar that holds everything together. All those hidden techniques that nobody notices. Even the smartest readers don’t necessarily know about the mortar. Writing technique is what you learn in classes and critique groups. I wish I’d started taking classes years before I did.

Read the full Q&A here.

This morning I was turned down for a corporate speech. Another rejection. I should be used to rejection, but I’m not.

You never get used to it. You never just pass it off. Not entirely. Still, you don’t scream and yell. You don’t run around telling people how bad you feel. Instead, you tell yourself, I won’t let this ruin my day, and you give yourself a few minutes to feel rotten, and then you think about something else.

But the rejection is there, like a thorn, from time to time giving you a small stab. No, we never get used to it. But above all, we never “get even,” we don’t turn on the people who rejected us. We thank them and go on. If you learn anything in life, it’s the futility–the stupidity–of burning bridges.

When rejection overwhelms you, and it does occasionally, you think about Abraham Lincoln, who was rejected endlessly–who “lost” at least once, in nearly every political office he aspired to, yet became such a venerated man his inspiration has lasted over a century.

My response to rejection works for me. I say to myself, “What do THEY know?” and tell myself–actually communicate with my soul–that some day that person will wish he’d taken me on, that eventually I will surprise him and he will regret the day he turned me down. I take the “long view.”

And you know what? Most of the time the “long view” comes true.

Smaller and regional presses will vary in their acceptance of agented vs. unagented work. Some only accept manuscripts from agents, while others perfer to work with authors directly. Non-fiction authors usually find a warmer welcome, sans agent, especially if they are a recognized expert in their field. Again, the bigger the house, the more critical the agent’s role.

Las Vegas attorney and author Tami Cowden recently addressed the Las Vegas Writers Group on the subject of agents and how to acquire representation. LVWG “scribe” Megan Edwards provides a useful summary. The LVWG is a warm and welcoming organization to authors in all stages of their writing careers, from unpublished beginners to multi-book veterans.

The summary can be downloaded here.

The real truth? We couldn’t decide which color we liked best when the designer presented these vibrant options. Debating back and forth (author Maralys loved the coral while publisher Carolyn championed the bright green) we had a Eureka! moment — LET’S USE THEM ALL! Book jackets are usually printed in what’s called “four color process”. Because the strong and simple imagery of the waste basket and wadded up rejection letters could be printed in black ink, we could justify printing each 25% of the print run in one of the four colors. Books were then packed in cartons with an equal amount in each — they look terrific on the bookstore shelves.

USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS” 2008 AWARDS (NBBA) on October 20, 2008. Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com said winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Tarcher/Penguin, HarperCollins, Hyperion, St. Martin’s Press, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons and hundreds of independent presses contributed to this year’s outstanding NBBA competition. Keen adds, “NBBA’s success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”

Six finalists were named, with Damn as the top winner. Kudos to author Maralys Wills, along with the “village” it takes to nurture a book from manuscript to bookstore shelf, including editor Ray Newton, designer Sue Campbell, coordinator Stacey Fott and assistant Krissy Hawkins. Yay team!