Living the Dream

<---Photo: compliments of my sister. Taken by Ralph Lake who is living his dream.



When I was lamenting my rejections and feeling like I was falling short of the mark, I got this wonderful email from Jim Rubart, marketing guru. He's done work for Disney, Apple, HP, etc) and I had the pleasure of meeting him at the ACFW conference in September. I took one of his workshops, and I have to add: he's quite the magician!

Anyway, he gave me permission to share what he said with all of you below. The following is for those who are living their dream (specifically writers).


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You’re not falling short.


The ones that don’t dare to dream never submit. They never write. If they do write they never finish. They never revise. They never lay their heart out to be hurt.


You are living the dream.


Rejection is HARD because it feels so personal. It is personal to you, but not to them. What I mean by that is it has so much to do with:


Market timing—in a few years Biblical time period books could be all the rage

Slots—sometimes their calendar is full

Taste—I had one editor that loved my writing, but just didn’t like the type of story I’d written

Bad day—yes, something as random as someone on the pub board being in a bad mood

Mistake—Steve Laube talks about turning down Jan Karon and Ted Dekker as examples of simply being wrong. (Steve’s talk “Redeeming Rejection” is an EXCELLENT talk if you can get a hold of it.)


So hang in there and continue to dare to dream. (I love the picture and text on your blog.)


Jim Rubart

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Thank you, Jim, for allowing me to share your email with all my lovely followers. If any of you wish to follow Jim's blog, go here: http://jimrubart.wordpress.com/