Taylor Swift Wants to Control Her Own Destiny--And Why Not

You probably know Taylor Swift from her music. Maybe you even heard her public outrage about not owning her music and not having a say in who controls her catalog (of songs). Such outrage is easy to understand and agree with. That said, the vast majority of us working creatives don’t own the rights to our work, nor do we control who owns our work or what happens to our work in the future.

Taylor has been extremely fortunate to have found success, to have found labels willing to back her work, and even to get ownership of her newest work. Being an A-list music star helps tremendously. Meanwhile millions of creatives have never had full ownership, nor control over who does.

Millions of creatives have never had labels lining up to back them like the fortunate few, Taylor included. If A-listers didn’t need labels, they wouldn’t go to labels and labels wouldn’t exist. There’s a fine line to cut between control, ownership and labels. It’s a catch-22, an evil necessity, an ouroboros—the snake that eats its own tale.

The music industry though has been on the bleeding edge of changing the rules, allowing creatives to maintain more ownership and control—if not complete ownership and control. The music industry celebrates those who maintain ownership and control of their own work. The music industry celebrates small labels. The music industry celebrates independent artists. Together, they are indies—and there’s a whole world out there celebrating indie music.

In stark contrast, in the world of publishing, independents are derided, relegated to second class, trotted upon. There is intolerance—even hate—directed at independents. Those who independently publish are derided as frauds, failures, fakes, largely by those who fear the slipping away of the status quo. This despite nearly two decades of revolution in independent publishing.

It’s no secret that historically creatives get the short end of the stick. I’ve made no secret of the fact that my first publisher (Macmillan) ripped me off, nor of the fact that without those early contracts I might not have gone on to sell millions and millions of books. I have both thanked Macmillan for the opportunity and condemned Macmillan for taking advantage of me and countless of others. Substandard royalties, work-for-hire contracts that paid a pittance, more. Whatever they could get away with really.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that my publisher of 20 years (Microsoft) was more generous than others in the industry when it came to contracts, though I feel my work was still misused and also that there was tremendous usage of my work that I was never compensated for, including worldwide usage within and by Microsoft as well as third parties with relationships with Microsoft. I am, of course, eternally grateful to Microsoft and especially those that I worked with. Those who oversaw the publishing of my work did the best they could to keep the hungry machine from swallowing it and they ensured a graceful exit when the publishing world changed so dramatically that there was no longer a place for Microsoft Press within Microsoft Corporation.

Over 20 years, my work also was used in thousands of training courses (outside of Microsoft’s control and consent) that instructed millions of students around the world for which I was never paid. These students paid hundreds to thousands of dollars for short—3-5-7-day—training courses, amounting to billions of dollars of instructional training that I didn’t receive a single cent for. It makes the millions I was shortchanged by publishers over the years seem like a drop in the proverbial bucket—a single tear in a lake of tears.

The industry finds ways to further suck the marrow from your bones, to squeeze and wring out your blood. There are managers, agents, publicists to pay, not to mention accountants, others and the IRS, leaving the creative with pennies on the dollar. Point of fact, somewhere along the way, I figured out that over a 20-year period, after everyone got paid, I got about .03 on the dollar while my publishers collectively made well over $100,000,000 off my work (and retailers who sold my work made even more).

Thus, it both alarms and astounds me, that there continues to be so much hate and intolerance in the publishing community for authors who decide to go independent, who decide to self-publish, who decide to embrace new technologies and new means of getting their creations to the world. It boggles the mind that there are still so many fighting tooth and nail to prevent, deter and destroy those who simply want what every working creative should want. To own and control our own work, our own future.

Thanks for reading, I’ve written much about this and other related issues. You’ll find articles at Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamstanek/), in my personal blogs (http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/ and http://williamstanek.blogspot.com), at Go Indie (http://readindies.blogspot.com/) and on my websites (http://www.williamrstanek.com and http://www.robert-stanek.com/). You’ll find posts about related problems going back to 2003 here @ http://www.robertstanek.com/rsblog.htm. I do of course write as William Stanek, Robert Stanek, William R. Stanek and William Robert Stanek. I am of course the author of over 200 full-length works of fiction and nonfiction, having been a successful published author since 1995.

A Lifetime of Books – 30 Years of Robert Stanek Books

My name is Emily Asimov. When I heard of Robert Stanek’s lifetime achievement nomination, I jumped at the chance to write a tribute. Robert is one of the most inspirational people I know and an exceptionally talented writer. He’s also the reason my work is published today, and the author of some of my favorite childhood reads. From his superbly written “The Kingdoms & the Elves of the Reaches” to his sublime “Journey Beyond the Beyond,” I have been smitten with his work for years and gobbled up nearly everything he’s written.

An extremely prolific author, Robert Stanek has been writing for over 30 years and has produced close to 200 book-length works of fiction and nonfiction. It’s no secret to anyone who follows his work that he also writes as William Stanek and has been published by nearly every Big 6 / Big 5 publishing house. That feat alone would, and has, made him the subject of jealousy and envy throughout the writing community.

What most don’t know about Robert Stanek is his giving, earnest spirit. Robert is the type of guy who would (and has) literally given the shirt off his back to help someone in need.

Robert has given tirelessly throughout his life to support causes he believes in. Anyone who knows him knows the causes he champions: veterans, peoples with disabilities, animal rights, conservation, and education. And books and libraries have no better friend.

If there was ever an author who deserved to be recognized for lifetime achievement it is Robert Stanek. When I think of books and authors I’ve read and reread during my life, only a rare few spring to mind with Robert being atop that short list. His works have challenged and inspired me. His works have educated me. His works have opened my mind.

Listing all of my favorites and the reasons why here would take pages, so I’ll keep things brief and list the top few:

The Kingdoms & the Elves of the Reaches, fifteen years in print and forever in the canon of fantasy classics

Journey Beyond the Beyond, a beautiful, underappreciated master work

Air War, a timeless snapshot of life in war that pays homage to the men and women Robert Stanek served with

The Cards in the Deck, an edgy thriller that far surpasses the original work, The Pieces of the Puzzle

After the Machines, one of the best works of science fiction I’ve ever read  

These books alone are reason enough for Robert to be “one of the most featured and respected Kids & Young Adult authors” as named by The Audio Bookstore. But Robert has written many, many more, and all of which are worthy of your time and support.

When it comes to helping others, Robert has spent a tremendous amount of time and effort championing veterans, peoples with disabilities, and other causes he believes in. Robert is a veteran of multiple wars, conflicts and campaigns, including Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Provide Comfort. In his inspirational true story, Air War, he writes about doing what was needed when called upon, the pieces of himself left behind on the battlefield, and his willingness to give everything to what he believes in. I came away from the reading in tears, a new respect for our service men and women, and with a profound sense that something deep within me had changed. Something had changed. I had grown as a person from living his experiences through his words.

The causes and challenges of peoples with disabilities aren't just something Robert supports but something he believes in wholeheartedly. He has a daughter with Downs Syndrome and some disability from his service. Whether supporting the Wounded Warrior Project, Special Olympics or otherwise, you can tell he gives a hundred percent every time. 

People like Robert who give with their heart rarely receive anything in return. But after reading this, I hope you will join me in supporting Robert Stanek, spreading the good word about his work, and sharing his kind heart and beautiful spirit with others. 

Robert Stanek is an author whose works you should read and shout about from the rooftops. He's earned the support a hundred times over.

Emily Asimov

Author 

A Long Hard Slog Up the Middle: A Writer's Journey Part 2

As I was saying last time, I finished my first full-length novel in '86, won my first writing award in '91, and signed my first book contract in '94. Since then, I've written over 150 books which have been read by over 10 million people. But I almost gave it all up in the late '90s.

After months of waiting to hear good news, my wife and I were considering our options and wishing we’d sold the family home and moved to Seattle where I was working at the time, having gone back to full-time work other than writing.

Thankfully though after months of waiting, I heard got good news from my agent. The publisher wanted to meet with me. The publisher wanted to discuss my ideas.

During the meeting, it was clear that the publisher liked my ideas but I’d need to provide sample chapters, expand the series details, have more face-to-face meetings, and generally do more to convince them. The hard part that followed required a leap of faith. I couldn’t do all that was required of me, in the time that was required of me, and keep working full-time elsewhere. I had to quit the day job and proceed, or keep the day job and let the dream die.

I chose the dream. I gave notice, worked my last two weeks while I continued developing the materials needed. A few weeks in, I learned the publisher had one idea for the series and I had another. Worse, the concepts were radically different.

I thought for sure disaster was ahead. Thankfully, the publisher did eventually sign me to a two-book contract. A contract to do things their way—and not my way.

However, the sample chapters I’d written over the past weeks were for my series concept and not theirs, so I kept writing the books my way. For this publisher, it was something unheard of for any writer to go outside the standard or to deviate from fixed standards. But my editors loved the final chapters I submitted, and I completed the work in its entirety ahead of schedule—so many weeks ahead of schedule they didn't quite know what to do, and this also was something else that was unheard of.

In fact, I was so far ahead of schedule, that the book’s publication dates were moved back several months. Those several months proved critical, as they allowed the publisher to showcase the books at a major industry event when the publisher otherwise would not have been able to. And the books done my way were smash hits at the event.

The rest as they say is history. Those contracts were followed by two other contracts from other publishers that I’d contacted previously. Suddenly, I was back in the publishing business.

Looking back now after I these years, I know exactly what I would have given up, had I not chased the dream. That little series I started? That series would eventually go on to become one of the biggest blockbuster series for the publisher, with $100M in worldwide retail sales—and counting.

Those first books I wrote in that series? They set the foundation for the entire series and became critically-acclaimed, award-winning bestsellers.

Sometimes in life you must take that leap of faith. Sometimes you must believe in yourself when no one else does. Sometimes you must follow the wrong path to find the right one.

Talk to you next time,

Robert Stanek

Long, Hard Slog Up the Middle: A Writer's Journey Part 1

I’ve been a writer for more than 30 years. I finished my first full-length novel in 1986, won my first writing award in 1991, and signed my first book contract in 1994. Since then, I've gone on to write more than 150 books, which have been read by readers all around the world.

I earned my stripes in this crazy business when I wrote for many years for the simple pleasure of writing itself. It wasn’t until 1994 that I signed my first contract. It wasn’t until 1995 that my first book was published. It wasn’t until 1996 that I was able to write full-time.

My full-time work as a writer is as a technology journalist and nonfiction writer. In those early days, I wrote articles for leading publications like PC Magazine and Dr. Dobbs. I also wrote books for leading publishers like Macmillan, Pearson, McGraw Hill, Microsoft, and O’Reilly Media. For articles, I often received $1 or more a word. For books, I often received solid five-figure advances. That was, of course, success, and I did in fact rise quickly, becoming a recognized world leader in my field in only a few short years.

Success, however, can be short lived. In publishing, a writer’s last success doesn’t necessarily pave the road to the future. A writer’s future is determined by his or her next book and often also by factors the writer cannot control. The world changes every day. Trends and tastes shift. Yesterday’s media darling can be tomorrow’s nobody.

I’ve lived the change firsthand. Between 1995 and 1998, I signed more than a dozen contracts, wrote books as fast as I could write them for readers who couldn’t get my books fast enough. I was on fire. In those few short years, my books earned millions at retail. I thought the ride would never end, until it did.

The market changed. Trends and tastes shifted. The hot topics of the day were flooded with a smorgasbord of offerings. There weren’t just 10 or 20 books on that hot topic, there were a hundred. Eventually, this oversaturation cannibalized sales of all similar books. Thus, even as my success and career were hitting new highs, I was left scrambling.

But unlike many of my contemporaries at the time, I saw the light of that oncoming freight train. I knew my options. I knew what I had to do.

I could continue to write books in an oversaturated market, try to live with sales that were a tiny fraction of what they had been, or I could look to new opportunities. I chose plan b—the new opportunities. I risked everything, left my old publishers who weren’t interested in my new ideas, and went out looking for publishers who were interested in my new ideas.

The change meant I had to rejoin the working world. I took a job with a tech company in Seattle and joined the ranks of the marathon commuters, driving 140 miles round trip every working day. I continued writing in the evenings and on weekends. I continued to pitch my new ideas to new publishers.

Days and weeks passed. Months too. By the sixth month, my wife and I were seriously considering our options and wishing we’d sold the family home and moved to Seattle months ago.
But I didn’t give up. Instead, I polished my ideas yet again and sent them out via my agent to a new publisher who I heard was looking to do something different. I just hoped that the “something different” they wanted would be my radical idea for a new series of books.

The wait to hear back from the publisher was agony because at this point it was make or break. If I heard back from the publisher and it wasn’t good news, my writing career likely was over. If I heard back from the publisher and it was good news, there was hope, but no certainty.

Thankfully, I heard back from my agent within a few days and the news was...

To be continued...

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek

Nielsen BookScan Sales Data Can Be Misleading (Or Alternatively Understanding This Brave New World of Publishing a Little Better)

I think most everyone is guilty of preaching. I see lots of opinionated posts that pretty much state, ‘I know everything because I have published a book.” And I know what they mean, because that’s what a lot of people mean when they’re giving their opinion. Sometimes I’m one of those people too. I’d like to think my 20 years of experience as a pro author and 12 years of experience as an indie author get me pretty far in the expert department (but I’m also smart enough to know there are very few actual experts on anything). Publishing has been changing so fast over the past decade that many so-called experts are left scratching their heads as they try to understand what’s going on. One of those experts being left behind is Nielsen BookScan.

For those who don’t know, Nielsen BookScan is a company that collects retail sales information from bookshops. Many companies, including Amazon.com, use Nielsen BookScan sales data to track the sales history of books. Some bestseller lists also use Nielsen BookScan sales data to determine which books are the bestsellers in specific categories at any given time.

Much like bestseller lists, which I’ve written about in Bestseller Lists Can Lie, Nielsen BookScan sales data doesn’t actually show the total sales of any book in any particular category or at any particular time. More accurately, Nielsen BookScan sales data is reflective of a statistical sample of sales of particular books in particular categories or genres at a particular time. More plainly, Nielsen BookScan sales data captures a relatively small portion of book sales in particular markets and locations.

However, Nielsen BookScan sales data is often presented as if it shows a book’s total actual sales or equally as bad some imagined percentage of actual sales. Even Amazon.com which should absolutely know better as a digital online leader misrepresents to authors what Nielsen BookScan sales data actually is. BTW, your Author Central account on Amazon.com shows sales data for Nielsen BookScan US (which is itself one segment of the ten currently tracked markets).

On numerous occasions, I’ve had publishers and others in publishing tell me with a straight face that you can tell the total sales of a book simply by multiplying the Nielsen BookScan sales for a book by some imagined value. Usually, the X factor stated ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 depending on the type of book. Twenty years ago, when books released in the US were primarily sold only in the US in physical, tracked stores that may have been true. Such a thing hasn’t been true for a long, long time in the US or anywhere else.

Here’s what Nielsen BookScan tracks exactly: English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market from about 35,500 tracked retail stores in 10 countries: Australia, Brazil, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, UK, and US. Prior to approximately early 2011, the tracked stores included only specific chain bookshops, key independent bookshops, and key supermarket stores. After approximately early 2011, Nielsen BookScan also began monitoring sales from leading internet book sites.

What doesn’t Nielsen BookScan track? Everything else. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track education (school, college, etc) or library sales. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track sales from most department stores, even though many carry books. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track non-English Language sales. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track any bookshops that don’t participate in the program or that aren’t considered key or leading. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track non-book sites that also sell books. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track internet book sites that aren’t considered key or leading. Nielsen BookScan doesn’t track English Language sales in any country other than the 10 where it currently does business.

To understand Nielsen BookScan, you also need to understand that the data is segmented by market (country). Nielsen BookScan US data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in the US and began operations in January 2001. Nielsen BookScan Australia data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in Australia and began operations in December 2000.

Nielsen BookScan New Zealand data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in New Zealand and has been operating since December 2008. Nielsen BookScan South Africa data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in South Africa and began operations in December 2003. Nielsen BookScan India data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in India and has been operating since October 2010. Nielsen BookScan International data is reflective of English Language sales statistics for the consumer book market in the UK and Ireland.

Something else you should know: From its inception to approximately early 2012, Nielsen BookScan was specifically for tracking titles that were physical products, meaning tracking of printed books and packaged audio. In approximately early 2012 Nielsen BookScan began working to track sales statistics for the consumer ebook market. Prior to this Nielsen BookScan did not track ebook sales. Nielsen BookScan also does not track digital audio sales in any market.

Nielsen says that BookScan in the US tracks approximately 16,000 locations or roughly 85% of the market but then states that it collects sales data for only 500,000 titles in a typical week. Visit Amazon.com and you’ll find about 12,000,000 titles. My best estimate is that about 35% of these titles are books actively available in the US, including printed books, digital books, packaged audio, digital audio, etc. 35% of 12 million titles is 4.2 million. 4.2 million - .5 million is 3.7 million. Where exactly is the sales data for these 3,700,000 titles? Well, it’s not tracked.

Within a market, such as the US, Nielsen BookScan also provides historical sales data by category, format, author, and publisher with weekly data aggregated into four and twelve week blocks. Titles are tracked by ISBN, the unique identifier for book products. Nielsen BookScan can track sales across formats. At present, this cross-format tracking is for alternate physical editions of books and the tracking is dependent on each related title being properly cross-linked by the publisher in the first place (generally by specifying a related ISBN).

The clear problem here is that modern books are often released in many formats, in many editions, and in many markets. As an example, in the English language there are over 600 William Robert Stanek titles at Amazon and over 900 William Robert Stanek titles in library distribution. You can check these numbers yourself by counting all William Stanek, William R. Stanek, William Robert Stanek, and Robert Stanek titles.

There are an additional 400 or so of my titles in the English language that don’t even have my name on them. They are sold under a brand name. For example, Bugville Learning and Ruin Mist Publications are two of my brands and titles released in these brands may or may not have my name on them even though I have of course written them.

I have hundreds of inactive and/or otherwise out-of-print titles as well. Additionally, over the past 20 years, my books have been translated into 34 languages. All of these translations were released in many formats and editions as well. In total, there are thousands of my titles published in the past 20 years.

How many of these titles has Nielsen BookScan US ever tracked? Well, Nielsen BookScan US didn’t track any sales prior to January 2001. Nielsen BookScan US didn’t track Internet sales until approximately early 2011. Nielsen BookScan US just started tracking ebooks sales and doesn’t track digital audio sales. Nielsen BookScan US doesn’t track education sales. Nielsen BookScan US doesn’t track library sales. Nielsen BookScan US doesn’t track any sales outside the US. I could go on, but I won’t. I think you get the point.

Finally, don’t confuse Nielsen ratings with Nielsen BookScan US. With Nielsen ratings, the television viewing habits of a relatively small cross-section of households are statistically extrapolated to be representative of millions of viewers across the US. With Nielsen BookScan US, the book buying habits of a subset of leading US retail locations are statistically extrapolated to be representative of the millions of books sold across the US. If you’re an author whose books are sold primarily in these retail locations, you’ll look like a superstar. If you’re an author whose books are sold primarily in other locations, you won’t look like a superstar.

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek

Are You Using Twitter Effectively?

I’m a tech journalist and writer in my day job. I’ve been a twitter user for many years. I tweet all sorts of things of interest to my readers and others from information about my books to career milestones, causes I support, and more. For my day-to-day twitter needs, I use Tweet Deck, a powerful, handy app that Twitter bought for a cool $47 million in cash and stock some time ago.

One of the things I notice from people and tweet streams I follow is how often people who position themselves as social media elite decry others for using twitter incorrectly while they themselves do things that I consider just as bad. But does it really matter anyway? Does anyone really think that a tweet sent once is read by all their followers? Because that's not how twitter works. By its very nature, twitter isn't something most people log into and watch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At any given time, on any given day, odds are only a tiny percentage of anyone’s twitter followers are even following their twitter timelines.

In reality, anything anyone in the public spotlight (author, actor, singer) does on social media is self-promotion. Your tweets don't have to be the me-me-me kind, but whether you are talking about what you ate for breakfast, sharing details about your latest release, or having a conversation with your friends, you are promoting you. You are self-promoting. You are on social media to be noticed, to be followed. If you didn’t want to be noticed or followed, you’d have private conversations beyond the social media spotlight.

If you can’t admit to yourself that you’re a self-promoter, if being thought of as a self-promoter bothers you, maybe social media isn’t the place for you. Otherwise, if you’re going to be honest and admit that it’s all self-promotion, a question you need to ask yourself is whether you are using twitter effectively.

Twitter can be an exceptionally effective tool for helping people get to know you, for spreading the word about your work, for showing support for causes and ideas you believe in, and more. One of the things I’ve done to help understand Twitter better is to use Twitter Web Analytics.

Twitter Web Analytics is a platform for gauging the amount of traffic twitter sends to your website or specific locations (URLs). Using the platform, you can graph and analyze many important statistics, including the number of tweets for a specific website, such as www.robert-stanek.com, and the number of clicks on those tweets. For me, the platform was most useful to analyze specific tweets that included links, such as a link to my Facebook page or my blog, and views of pictures added to tweets. I could then graph the number of tweets, views, and clicks over time. These tweets, views, and clicks were one way of understanding how effectively I was engaging with readers.

Twitter Advertising is another service you can use. Twitter Advertising allows you to promote your account and tweets. As Twitter Advertising provides web analytics, it can be an easy alternative to setting up the official Twitter Web Analytics and determining the effectiveness of your tweets. I learned much from analyzing the effectiveness of various tweets. One of the most important things I learned was that a retweet (RT) was only one aspect of engagement. Knowing this, I started focusing on total engagement.

Total engagement is reflected in:

• The number of follows
• The number of clicks (on links, pictures)
  
• The number of replies
  
• The number of RTs
• The number of favorites

If you want to build total engagement on Twitter, you need to think about each of these factors and decide which of these factors are most important to you. For me, I became more interested in having people engage with my tweets by clicking on them to follow links or view pictures than in having replies or retweets. Using the web analytics provided by Twitter, I’ve been able to increasingly build traction in this area. While my most typical tweets get only a relative few retweets and replies, most of my tweets get dozens of engagement clicks and views. My more successful tweets have garnered hundreds--and a rare few, thousands. For me, that is Twitter success.

How you measure your Twitter success may be different, but you can use the engagement factors I listed previously to help you determine your level of success. Regardless of how you use twitter, I hope this post has given you something to think about.

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek

Authors, We’re All Mountain Climbers and Marathoners

Whether you’re a newbie dreaming of success, a workaday writer dreaming of paying the bills, somewhere in between or somewhere beyond, you’re a mountain climber or marathoner even if no one has ever told you as much. Mountain climbers are the lucky few. They’re off to Nepal in preparation for the trek that will take them up Everest almost as soon as their big book is published. Weather permitting, they’ll fly over the Himalayas to meet their Sherpa guides. They’ll hike the trail to Namche Bazaar and catch a first glimpse of Everest as their big book lands on a bestseller list. Then they’ll set out on the trail along the Bhote Kosi and the Nangpa La and their big book will keep climbing up the bestsellers lists as they make their way to Everest Base Camp.

It’s a two-week journey from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp. After the ascent, the climbers must retrace their steps and hike down a steep trail. Then it’ll be a long, if leisurely, trek back to Lukla and Phakding. If the weather holds, they’ll be able to fly back to Kathmandu without delay, where they can explore the city until they depart the following day for home. A week will pass on the return journey. When they get home, they can rest well knowing they made the climb. But for continued success they’ll eventually need to prepare to climb Everest all over again.

Marathoners aren’t as fortunate as climbers. Their trip to the Boston Marathon begins on quiet country back roads, busy city streets, and quaint city parks. These would-be marathoners may practice sprinting, publishing many works in a short time. They may walk to build endurance, publishing a few works over a long time. Or they may jog at a steady pace, publishing works steadily as they go. Although the books of these sprinters, walkers and joggers may never land atop bestseller lists, these sprinters, walkers and joggers are all working toward the same goal. They all want to enter the marathon and cross the finish line in Boston, having walked, run or crawled for 26 miles and 385 yards to do it.

It’s a grueling 4 hours and 39 minutes on average to complete a marathon at a steady pace of about 10:34 per mile. For those who walk, it’s about 8 hours on average to complete a marathon. Whether you run or walk, crossing the finish line is exhilarating. But crossing the finish line isn’t the end of the ordeal. The second you cross the finish line you must resist the temptation to plop down on the ground. You must walk around. You must hydrate and eat. You must begin recovery. How you take care of yourself will determine how quickly you’ll recover. How quickly you can marathon again.

What no one tells the mountain climber is this: Your next attempt to climb Everest may not be a successful one. If so, there’s nothing wrong with attempting to climb Everest and failing. Lots of climbers have attempted Everest and failed. Perhaps you simply have to shake off the failure and prepare your ascent again. Or perhaps your next mountain isn’t Everest at all. Perhaps it’s Mount Fuji. Or perhaps you may find that success requires a marathon after all.

What no one tells the marathoner is this: You may not be able to complete the marathon. If so, perhaps you are a half marathoner instead of a marathoner or perhaps you were running in the wrong race after all. There’s nothing wrong with being a half marathoner instead of a marathoner. There’s nothing wrong with learning you’ve been running in the wrong race. At the end of all your marathons, you may even find that you were a mountain climber after all.

World's Greatest Rejection Letters, a Few Catch 22’s of the Trade and One Glorious Ride

I’ve been writing stories for 35 years—ever since I started writing for the school newspaper as a kid. In honor of my 150^th book, due out this year from my publishers, I’m taking a look back at where I began. I never stopped writing once I started all those years ago, I got really serious about the craft in Summer 1983 but it wasn’t until 1986 that I finished something I no longer considered a draft or an unfinished work—that being my first full-length novel. A done-novel and not a draft-novel. At the time, I was in the military and stationed in Japan. When I left Japan at the beginning of 1989, I had four finished novels and was on my way to Survival Training, followed by Air Combat School, and finally to a posting in Germany as a combat flyer.

Somewhere in there I met and married my wife of 22 years. Germany though was a tough posting for newlyweds as I was deployed somewhere or on temporary duty elsewhere most of the time, including two tours of combat in Iraq. I did manage to write from time to time, finishing a 5^th novel by the time I left Germany in the fall of 1991 for a new posting in Hawaii. It was in Hawaii that I decided to get serious about my job/career path. I enrolled in college as a full-time nights/weekend student and also started educating myself about how to get my work published.

1993-1995 were my years though, and years of many firsts. I sent out my first queries for publication. I learned about the rejection letter—that dreamkiller, that insensible article, that form letter often given out without a care (or even a manuscript ever having been read).

I learned all about how multiple submissions were frowned on because you should preferably send a manuscript only to one publisher at a time so you could wait 3 to 6 months for your form letter rejection instructing you your manuscript wasn’t read/wasn’t what they wanted or that you needed an agent to even make it out of the slush pile—the slush pile being the giant mail bins where manuscripts are/were dumped until someone took a manuscript out of its envelope and put it (typically) unread into the obligatory SASE (self-address stamped envelope you provided) for return.

I learned all about the Catch 22 of have agent / get published. You needed an agent to get through the slush piles (or so I was told quite a few times) only to be told by agents that I needed to be published to be considered by the agency so that I could get published. Neither publishers nor agents ever seemed to get the irony of that.

I learned all about fee-charging and non-fee-charging agents too. Some agents charged a fee simply to agree to read your work so they could—drum roll please—send you a rejection letter. They never seemed to get the incongruity of such a thing either.

I also made it through the slush piles at multiple publishers flying solo (er, having given up on agents… though not completely… ;-). Del Rey wanted to see my full manuscripts and the full series synopsis (this was for Ruin Mist Chronicles), so did Tor. Both the Del Rey and Tor requests came from executive editors. The one I was most hopeful about was from Betsy Mitchell, who would go on to become Editor-in-Chief at Del Rey.

It was a breathless sort of wait during the weeks that followed, only to end with dashed hopes. Betsy Mitchell’s letter was nicely written saying "The fantasy world you have created is truly wonderful and rich. Your characters seem real and full of life. It's a creative, provoking, and above all, thoughtful story! ... Unfortunately, your book is not the right fit for Del Rey."

The rejection letter from the executive editor at Tor was equally as fun: "The writing style is strong... the ideas are interesting and the writing good! ... The story isn't right for our line of books. We feel it's too hard to launch a new series by a new author at this time."

I didn’t buy into the idea that it was too hard to launch a new series by a new author. There were new books by new authors being published all the time. Undaunted, I made the rounds again, sending out samples and queries. A few months later when both Ace and Bantam asked to see my full manuscripts and series (Ruin Mist Chronicles) I completely forgot about the boatload of form rejection letters from all the other publishers I’d sent my queries too... ;-).

While I waited for responses, I also started looking at new areas to write in and how I could tie that into the career path I had chosen: Computer Science. I completed my Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science degree program in 1994, and was working to complete my Master of Science degree program. In my job in the military I was working deep in mainframes, Unix computing and this thing called the World Wide Web. The Web was new at the time and relatively few outside the military and academia had ever used it.

Cramming 6 years of school into 4 years while working full-time hadn’t left much time for breathing let alone writing, so by this time I was rather exhausted of the whole affair. I could’ve easily thrown in the towel. It’d been a long journey. It’d been an eventful journey.

On a whim, I drafted an outline for a book about publishing on the World Wide Web. I found the name of an editor at a publisher called Macmillan and sent the outline along with a query. I’m not sure why I picked that one editor at that one publisher, but I did. I expected it would be months before I got a response. I focused on completing my courses so I could graduate from my Master’s program.

Unexpectedly, I got a response from the editor almost immediately. A phone call, received by my wife, that I was to return. This was right before Thanksgiving (November 1994). I’d come home from a swing shift so it was about 2 AM when I got the news. I don’t recall sleeping that night, if I did I don’t remember. What I do remember is the phone call the next day—the call that changed my life.

Within days of that call I had a contract in my hand and a week later I was writing a “little” book called Electronic Publishing Unleashed. Originally, I was supposed to just be a contributor to the book but the publisher liked my work so much I ended up as the lead writer, writing ~800 pages of the 1050 pages.

The book was written and published to a break-neck schedule. I started in December finished by May and the book was published in September. Before I had even finished, the publisher signed me to a second book, Web Publishing Unleashed—a 950-page monster. I wrote right through graduation and into the fall, finishing ~750 pages by late October. That book was published in March 1996. Both books were huge bestsellers.

Web and Internet technologies moved, so fast that by the end of 1997 I had 10 published books to my credit. I never had time to breathe in those years, but I know one thing for certain. I know none of it ever would have happened if I’d given up. If I’d thrown in the towel back in 1994, I’d’ve missed out on the ride of a lifetime (and all the great rides that followed too).

Hanging in there for a decade is not something everyone can do. For many it’s simply not practical, but you have to believe in yourself, even if no one else does. Not everyone will make it. But if you love the craft, even if you never make a living at writing, it should be time well spent.

So, if you're a writer, enjoy the writer's ride. Triumph in the small joys. Words written. Pages finished. Characters and worlds created. A reader reached. A world changed, if only in the smallest of ways.