KNOWING WHEN TO QUELL YOUR PROTECTIVE MOTHER HEN INSTINCTS

Every author, aspiring or published should know when and where to quell their protective instincts; where their work is concerned. They should also know when and where to let their inner mother hen run amok in regards to protecting said work from harm.

On September 14th, 2012, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Lauren Dane (@laurendane) tweeted about an agent who was assaulted by a writer whose work she rejected for whatever reason. Lauren of course had advice for the author which I found quite valid...see screen shot below.

Now we get to my thoughts on the subject. I'll try not be long-winded but I make absolutely no promises on that front.

In my introductory post I spoke about feeling like my work was my baby because it is a product of me. This appears to be what the author was suffering at the time of the assault. While I understand that feeling I in no way agree with what she did. She had to have known going into the meeting that there was a 50/50 chance of rejection and as such act accordingly, that is, prepare herself  for either response to her work, be it positive or negative.

Once you make the decision to share your work with others you HAVE to be open to criticism, as long as it's constructive of course. If it's not constructive then you can unleash your protective instincts by defending your work till you're blue in the face if that's what it takes. However, if the criticism is constructive then  that feedback can be used to perfect your work so when next you submit it they'll have a devil of a time rejecting it. Besides, there is no law stating that you can't re-work and re-submit a story to the same publisher who earlier rejected it.

I guess the author was too caught up in her emotions to consider the fact that she could have used that feedback to her advantage.Or the fact that there were other avenues open to her. Or the fact that, that rejection was one person's opinion and it does not mean everyone else will react to the book the same way.

She had the option to shop her book elsewhere. She could have also chosen to self publish with Amazon.com. I know of several authors who self publish through Amazon and are quite successful. Also she could have sent the book to various blogs for review and ask them to post their review on their site and Amazon's simultaneously, thus earning her some publicity and readers, provided the review was favourable.

Traditional avenues of publishing are losing ground each day as more and more authors are choosing to self publish.Who wouldn't? The perks of self publishing are you, the writer have the freedom to write the stories you want to, you also get 70% of the royalties as well as get to set the price of your books, this is with Amazon I'm not sure about the other sites that also allow you to self publish.

The downfall is, it's a lot more work as you now have to wear different hats besides that of author. You are now charged with the responsibility of editing your books, marketing them and a host of other things that I am not even aware of that goes into publishing a book.

This is where networking and social media play key roles in getting your books into the hands of your current and potential readers/fans. Because you are not contracted to one of those big publishing houses you don't have access to editors but what you do have are friends, family, possibly fans and even other authors who can read your work, give you feedback as to what works, what doesn't work, they can even edit too.

Now to the marketing side of things. Similarly you don't have access to big bucks to market your book but you really don't need it, with the advent of social media all you need is that network of family, friends etc. You can get one of them to make a trailer for the book and post on Youtube, you can post the video on your Facebook page, do a Blog tour get your name out there, build a website and Tweet about your book. 

I have to say it again I guess she was too caught up in her protective mother hen instincts to see the other routes she could have taken to get what she wanted. Had she been thinking clearly she would also have taken into consideration the fact that her actions could have far reaching consequences.If the agent she assaulted is vindictive enough to call other publishers and tell them about her, her career could be at an end before it even has a chance to take off; which if it does happen is very sad indeed.