HWS: Pressing On & Getting Out There

Today we have writer Mindy McGinnis as a guest on Happy Writers Society. Welcome, Mindy, make sure to visit the VIP room—the cupcake buffet is magnificent. This is your reward for providing such a lovely post for us.

I’m a happy writer, but I freely admit I haven’t always been. Fellow blogger and YA author Anita Howard asked me to guest post on her blog, A Still and Quiet Madness, when I became agented. That post details my decade long wallow of self-pity while on the agent hunt. After over 130 rejections on a single novel, I was this close to being a bitter failure.

So I asked myself, “Alright Mindy, whaddya gonna do? Quit writing? Really? Cause will that make the stories in your head stop happening?” The answer was, “probably not.” I packed up my negativity and started fresh, whipped out a new novel and found My Agent Who Loves Me (a.k.a Adriann Ranta) shortly thereafter.

And yeah, having someone to love you is a totally awesome experience. But at the same time, I’d already made the decision to BE a writer, regardless of whether or not I was ever an author. Even if we stop taking our fingers to the pen or the keyboard, our brains will continue to function in the same way they always have. You can turn off the light switch, but there’s still an electrical current under there.

So I entered AgentedAuthorLand feeling pretty good, started up my blog and shot out a few tentative emails asking agents, authors and industry bloggers if they’d like to come on over and do an interview to help get my blog off the ground. To my total surprise, positive responses started flowing into my inbox the same day. Agents who I’d pelted with bad queries were like, “Sure, send the questions on over.” Authors whose books I had on my bedside table said, “I’d love to! So flattered you like my work!” Bloggers whose sites I’d stalked for years replied, “Of course – I know exactly what it’s like to build a blog. Anything I can do, I will do.”

Now, I’m sure it helps that I start my emails to agents with “I’m recently agented,” so they know that I’m not going to entice them over to the blog with promises of candy, then tie them up in my Basement of Pain until they agree to represent me, but that’s besides the point.

This industry truly is filled with kind, intelligent, accessible people. I’m a newborn over on this side, and everybody is contributing to my care with an awesome – “Yes, I will!” And that’s a damn good thing, cause I’ve totally filled my diaper a few times already.