Announcing – the MSFV Success Story Blog Hop!

Hello, readers!

Guess what? We’re just about to begin what will hopefully be the first of the Annual Authoress’ Success Story blog tours!

Authoress Anonymous has built a strong and supportive community on her blog Miss Snark’s First Victim: a community of writers, critiques, hopefuls, agents, editors, and readers. There, writers can participate in contests designed to help them practice giving and receiving critiques, polish their hooks, spiffy up query letters, and gain exposure to literary agents… and, in the case of some writers, get offered representation or publishing deals!
Over twenty professional authors now owe some part of their successes to Authoress, the incredibly generous people who participate in her contests, and her blog. Those of us who have owed our publishing successes to MSFV have decided to come together to celebrate both MSFV, Authoress, and to help cross promote each other’s work.

Every day in the first two weeks of August, a different author will be posting an interview of one of our fellow Success Stories. There might even be some giveaways, so don’t miss a single blog post! Make sure to tune in to everyone’s blogs from August 1st to the 15th, and to follow the hash tag #MSFVSuccessStory this month for more details, tidbits, and info. See you there!

Name	Website	Twitter	Posting Date
David Kazzie	http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com/	@davidkazzie	1-Aug
Leigh Talbert Moore	leightmoore.com	@leightmoore	2-Aug
J.Anderson Coats	http://www.jandersoncoats.com	@jandersoncoats	3-Aug
J.M. Frey	www.jmfrey.net	@scifrey	4-Aug
Elissa Cruz	elissacruz.blogspot.com	@elissacruz	5-Aug
Amanda Sun	http://amandasunbooks.blogspot.com	@Amanda_Sun	6-Aug
Kristi Helvig	www.kristihelvig.blogspot.com	@KristiHelvig	7-Aug
Leah Petersen	http://www.leahpetersen.com	@Leahpetersen	8-Aug
Monica Bustamante Wagner	www.monibw.blogspot.com	@Monica_BW	9-Aug
E.M. Kokie	www.emkokie.com	@emkokie	10-Aug
Monica Goulet	http://monicagoulet.blogspot.com/	@MonicaGoulet	11-Aug
PeterSalomon	www.peteradamsalomon.com	@petersalomon	12-Aug
Sarah Brand	http://www.sarahbrand.com/	@sarahbbrand	13-Aug
Angela Ackerman	http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/	@angelaackerman & @writerthesaurus		14-Aug
Tara Dairman	http://taradairman.com/	@TaraDairman	15-Aug

One Reason Why We Shouldn't Feel Bad About Rejections

 I'd been wanting to write a post like this since the Writer's Voice Contest, because many peeps asked me why I didn't pick their entries. Sometimes I'd answer, it's a matter of tastes (because, really, in many cases, it wasn't about the writing, just about my taste). But these writers wouldn't believe me--they would say things like, "Oh, but I want to know why my entry sucked." (Even though I thought their entries didn't suck at all!)

So, to make my point, I wanted to ask you: have you ever read published book that you didn't like? That if you were an agent, you wouldn't have represented? And if you were an editor you wouldn't have bought? I'm sure you have, right?

Well, I have. In fact, I'm actually reading one. And it even was a book that was sold at action! But I couldn't connect with the characters because they were interested in things that didn't interest me. And I didn't connect with the writing, either (it used many adjectives for my taste). And I also thought it could have used more world building.

So, my point is: those form rejections that we've all seen more than once are actually true. This business is subjective and many things are a matter of tastes. (Sure, sometimes it is about the writing, too, and that's why we always need to revise and hone our skills, but this post was intended for the people who have already polished their MS and are still getting rejections.)

So, if you know you've done your best and you're still getting rejections, just keep going! Don't give up!!

<3
Mónica