The Renegade Writer Blog

This post is inspired by Erik Sherman’s post on his blog about ignoring being ignored. You know, when you sweat all day over the perfect intro letter and clips package for a custom publisher who expressed interest in you, and weeks later the only thing in your inbox is decomposing spam.

A lot of writers will tell you, “Aw, get over it” or “A busy writer doesn’t have time to sob over magazines that ignore you.” I don’t disagree with that advice — but advice like this is not, for lack of a better word, actionable, unless you schedule an appointment with a psychotherapist who can help you resolve your early weaning issues over the next five years. And frankly, when you’re new to the business, it’s irritating to hear a more experienced writer tell you that being busy with other work is the cure. What if there *is* no other work?

Bear with me. If you’re staring into the maw of an empty mailbox, there’s plenty you can do to fill your day, whether you’re a newly minted freelancer or someone who’s been milling the lobby of Conde Nast for a few years.

#1 piece of advice: Stop staring into the mailbox. The answer is not there.

Next, grab yourself a pen and a notebook or open up a Word file on your computer and start whining. That’s right — get everything out of your head and down on paper (or pixels). You’re being ignored, no one loves you, your rent was due yesterday, you’ll never make a living at this, how come everyone else is doing well? That kind of stuff. I don’t know about you, but I can maybe take 500 words of this, maybe 1,000 words if it’s February, before I start to feel queasy and disgusted. In a good way, that is. I really can’t tolerate whining, especially my own, and maybe because I’m a mother, a little voice starts pushing through the din to say, “Stop this! You’re driving me crazy! You want something to complain about? I’ll give you something to complain about.” (Wow, when I wrote that down, I didn’t hear my voice — I heard my mother’s voice. Yikes!)

OK, so next what you do is start thinking about things you can do to improve your situation. I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy into the whole editor=dominant/freelancer=submissive equation. Some ideas:

• If you sent one kick-ass package out to a custom publisher, what’s stopping you from sending out another package to a different publisher? You don’t know of any? Well, get off your ass and start researching.
• You sent five queries out last week? Send five more out this week … or better yet, send six, seven, or 10!
• Did you just turn in a bunch of assignments? E-mail your editors and let them know you’re just coming off a work bender, and do they have any assignments before your schedule fills up again?
• Did you meet an agent at a recent conference who expressed interest in your book idea? If you’ve got a break in your schedule, it’s the perfect time to work on that proposal or query letter.
• You’ve met a few other freelancers locally and have idly wondered about getting everyone together in one room. Well, e-mail them all and suggest a coffee break where you can all get to know each other. Build those connections.
• E-mail all your quality PR contacts and ask them if they can give you the heads-up on some stories. Sounds crazy, but you know? A good PR person can be a goldmine for the savvy writer.
• Ask someone you admire to meet for coffee or lunch. Why not?
• Call a local community college or continuing education program and ask if they’re looking for instructors. You don’t have to teach writing — teach a class in Indian breadbaking or motorcycle repair, wherever your talents lie!
• Use your kick-ass writing skills on eBay, Half.com, or Craigslist. Sell books you haven’t read, or the mountain bike gathering dust in your basement. Selling your stuff can keep you busy for hours — and it brings in cash!
• Especially if you’re bad at coming up with story ideas, force yourself to come up with ten story ideas every day. Do not go to bed at night until you’ve written the ten ideas down on paper. Do this for the next two weeks. At the end of two weeks, you’ll have 140 story ideas, and I bet at least ten of them will be pretty damn good. Now pitch them to editors.
• Send your editors a thank you note and let them know how much you enjoy working with them. Do this only if the sentiments are true.

Several months ago, things were slow around here. I had sent out a killer clip package to a custom publisher and was a little surprised that they never responded to my package or follow-up. Shrug. I didn’t let it bother me … I simply got busy doing other things. And one day I checked my e-mail and it was an editor from the custom publication. She’d saved my package and now something had come up and was I interested in taking an assignment? Sure I was … and I’ve gotten more assignments from her since.

I could go on and on with things you can do. But I’ll leave it to our readers to come up with their own ideas. What do you do when the mailbox is empty and you’re feeling sorry for yourself? Post in the comments!

Share This