E.S. Raye

This week I’m tackling a subject that, by all rights, I probably shouldn’t be. I mean, to be frank and fair, I have not “made it” in any real sense of the word yet.

For those keeping score, I have had one short story published, another accepted into an anthology that will not be releasing until (hopefully) February 2025 (just got an update from the publisher on that, so hooray!), I’m querying my debut novel, I got the attention of an indie film company with an original screenplay, was contracted by said film company to write one of their ideas, and through that connection was invited to work on a web series.

It’s the start of something, for sure, any hopefully will lead to “making it,” but, well, yeah… feel free to take what I have to say today with a grain of salt.

But if you’re hanging around to see what my two cents on the subject are, I have one word for your: perseverance.

Sure, talent plays a roll, but I believe that writing is a skill can that be learned. It may come more easily to some than others, but deficits can be overcome with (you guessed it) perseverance.

There’s also a certain amount of luck that goes into it. But luck is all about probabilities, and probabilities can be sometimes be consciously altered. Getting published or finding a film company to work with is not the same as throwing dice at the craps table. In the casino, the odds are stacked against you, and short of cheating, there’s little to nothing you can do–especially with craps.

But in the writing world you can change your odds by being prolific with your writing and your submitting. If your odds of getting published are one in a hundred, submit a thousand times. Not an easy task, but if you’re working on your craft and sending your work to strategic places, it will get in front of eyes that appreciate what you’re doing.

Rejection, and pushing through it, are integral parts of the “making it” process. Every author and screenwriter who has ever “made it” did so after wading through mountains of rejection letters. Dune by Frank Herbert is today the bestselling science fiction novel of all time. But before that, Herbert faced more than 20 rejections. Ultimately, the company that took a chance on the seminal work was accepted by Chilton Books, who, at the time, were better known for publishing car repair manuals.

Gone with the Wind was rejected nearly 40 times.

L. Frank Baum kept a journal he called “A Record of Failure” to keep track of all the rejections The Wizard of Oz received.

Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was rejected so many times she self-published–in a time when that was a much more difficult task than it is today.

Even the modern-day master of horror, Stephen King, received 80 rejections before Carrie was eventually published.

And the one thing all these writers had in commons?

Perseverance.

And that doesn’t just apply to “making it” in the traditional sense, with traditional publishing. If you’re path takes you the self-publishing route, the same still applies–perhaps more so.

Without the resources of a traditional publishing company to help you with covers, marketing, and distribution, figuring all of that out falls to you (from what I understand, at least marketing is still largely on the shoulders of first time novelists even with a traditional publisher to back them up). You can’t wait around and hope people discover your work, you have to go out and show it to them! You have to find them where they are, and bring them in.

No one said it would be easy (and if they did, they were either lying to you or don’t have any first hand experience with the realities). There is no guarantee you’ll succeed.

But with a hard streak of perseverance, you can swing the odds more in your favor.