- Guest Post by LeRon Barton
I have always wanted to be a writer and one of my biggest goals was to be published. I always dreamed about my project being on the shelf next to writers I admired such as Langston Hughes, James Joyce, F.Scott Fitzgerald, and John Steinbeck. Just think about it: Your book at Barnes & Noble and Borders!! Doing book signings, appearing on Today, and just talking about your creation. That was my goal. So after I finished Straight Dope, I started researching how to create a query letter. Reading different examples and strategies, I sent the first one off. No answer, hey it is okay. I knew that this was a numbers game. I browsed different publishing websites with databases of literary agents and started sending more letters off. Then the rejections came. No big deal right? Michael Jordan has missed some game winning shots. So I send more off and more rejection letters came. Again, rejection is to be expected. No one is signed off of their first attempt. There was this Cindy Crawford story that I always tell myself: When she was starting off attempting to get into modeling, Cindy was turned down by 24 modeling agencies. The 25th agency then gave her a shot. After emailing 39 query letters, I finally received a positive response from the 40th. The agent liked my idea, but wanted me to build up my social presence in the thousands. I thought about that, but then realized that I would be doing all the work, so why don’t I reap all the benefits. So I decided to stop contacting agents, and do this on my own. I then started Mainline Publications and released, “Straight Dope: A 360 degree look into American drug culture.” Today I am a published author because I did it on my own and I didn’t let anything stop me or deter me from my goal. Never give up, because success is out there.
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Genre – NonFiction / Sociology
Rating – PG
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