When my literary agent was first shopping around my anthology about parenting toddlers, I got down about the rejections.
“Keep your pecker up,” my agent wrote in an email to me.
We kept shopping the manuscript and we finally sold it to Seal Press.
The economy is so down right now and all of my writer friends and I are feeling it.
Magazines we work for are going out of business. Others are trying to monetize the eyeballs they have on the web but aren’t sure how. Suddenly, they’re asking writers to help them by blogging for free. Everyone is feeling that this time in the early 21st century is a time of great transition.
What do we do about it?
How do we go about keeping the pecker up in this down economy?
It’s not easy but if you choose to be a professional writer, it’s never really easy.
Even those of us writing bestsellers have to fight over titles and cover illustrations, to say nothing of losing favorite editors or dealing with others in the industry who score high on the PITA scale. If you aren’t familiar with the term, PITA stands for Pain In The Ass, a factor that enters into every writerly equation.
But easy isn’t necessarily good and hard isn’t necessarily bad. We have to keep generating quality ideas, finding fascinating stories, pitching until we hear yes instead of no, and writing high quality, well-researched articles that serve our audience’s (and our editor’s) needs.
It seems counterintuitive but another good strategy when your business is flagging is to put money into it. Sign up for that media training workshop. Hire a coach or an editor. Take a class. Go to a writing conference. As much as we don’t think we can afford it, investing in your writing business will yield positive results.
I’ll put this in a different way: Now is the time, more than ever, for us writers to keep our peckers up.
Published: June 11, 2009
Last update: January 23, 2020
Vera Marie Badertscher says
Funny. I’m visually sticking your neck out, keeping your chin up and keeping your pecker up all at once. Anything to inspire confidence in this climate, however.
Susan Johnston says
I was struggling to “keep my pecker up” earlier this year, too, but lately I’ve been doing more copywriting projects rather than pitching consumer magazines. I love writing for magazines and still do it when the opportunity is there, but in order to earn a living, it made sense to shift gears a bit.
ruth pennebaker says
Loved this, Jennifer. It makes me feel better just reading it. Pecker up, buttercup!
Roxanne Hawn says
A few things keep my pecker up:
1. Telling myself that things are never as good as they seem (or as bad), so don’t get overly caught up in the streak. (That’s a lesson I learned from my youngest dog, actually.)
2. When I’m feeling down, I think FIDO (forget it, drive on), credit there goes to Stephanie Geyer, my client at Noel-Levitz. Brilliant slogan, especially with the canine nod.
3. When all else fails, whip up the Magic Chocolate Coping Pie and have a slice each day until the world feels less gloomy.
I love writing. I love my dogs. I love chocolate. In one combination or another, that’s how I keep going.
Lisa says
Every day I take a deep breath and say: at least I’m not in real estate.
Sara Aase says
What a great pick-me-up. I love “FIDO” too!
Alisa Bowman says
This is so true. And during hard times like this, I try even harder to be a giving person. It allows me to see meaning in it all. I also think about my grandfather who survived the dust bowl/great depression by storing his bean crop in his silo year after year after year. Bean prices were so low that they weren’t worth selling. He was in hock to the bank that was threatening to take his farm. But he just kept trusting that things would turn around, and they did. He eventually sold his beans and paid off the bank and got on with life. We all will too.
Congrats on the book deal! I just had a similar experience. The rejection is rough, but making any sale in this economy is a HUGE accomplishment. Kudos to you!!
Christine says
Jennifer, thank you for writing this. It truly made me feel good to read it. It really does feel like we’ve entered a new era in so many ways and it’s helpful to know that other writers are experiencing similar things!