Dr. Michelle Martin | Author
  • Home
  • About
  • Aging Naked Blog
  • Counseling & Coaching Services
  • My Other Books
  • Contact

Don't Ever Give Up

1/27/2022

0 Comments

 
This is a story about the importance of 1) having a good sense of humor, and 2) never giving up.
​
About 5 years ago I took 5 million classes from Writers Digest on how to write a query letter for my book Aging Naked. At the time I only had two chapters completed, but was still actively blogging with HuffPost, so I really emphasized the popularity of my blog with the same title. I was so confident that I'd be picked up right away.. Why? Well, because I'd already written three academic books in the same general area. And I have the credentials to write a self help book. And, because I'm a good writer.

Anyway, the workshop leaders recommended including the link to our blogs in our query letters, which I proudly included. I was regularly featured on several HuffPost "verticals," including Huff Post Women and Huff Post 50, and many of my posts had gone viral, so yeah, I was pretty confident.

And yet, I didn't get much response, This was very confusing to me. I received a few requests for my proposal (okay, two), but really nothing else. I was baffled. I mean, I know it's really difficult to land a literary agent. In fact, it's difficult to even get your work in front of a literary agent, so I wasn't under any misconceptions that I've have a bidding war on my hands, but I expected more than complete silence.

So at some point I sent my query letter to a friend to review and she quickly pointed out something one teeny-tiny error with a very big punch. Apparently, when she clicked on the link to my blog, it took her to a porn site. A porn site! Somehow when I copied and pasted the blog link into the letter, something went awry, and I never thought to check it.

So the next time you feel badly about yourself, the next time you are certain you've made a mistake you can never recover from, just remember that I, a university professor, therapist, mother of a son, and all around detail-oriented person, sent porn to just about every literary agent in the entire country..


Did I give up? Nope! But I do hope these agents didn't keep good records and have really poor memories. 
0 Comments
    Picture

    Hello!

    This is a blog for middle-aged women, like me, who want to live a life of increased authenticity, and greater well-being, with fewer façades, less role-playing and a lot more fun. I chose a photo with myself and my son because he is my heart.

    You can also find my blog posts featured on
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    December 2020
    July 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Anxiety
    Authenticity
    Body Image
    Career
    Courage
    Decisions
    Emotional Engulfment
    Empty Nesting
    Fear
    Holidays
    Infertility
    Life Transition
    Love
    Mail
    Middle Age
    Middle-Age
    Moms
    Nature
    Online Dating
    Parenting
    Perfectionism
    Relationships
    Risk Taking
    Risk-Taking
    Self Acceptance
    Self-Acceptance
    Self-Honesty
    Shame
    Single Parenting
    Stress
    Well-Being
    Women
    Women's Intuition
    Yoga

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Menu

Contact

Copyright © 2018
  • Home
  • About
  • Aging Naked Blog
  • Counseling & Coaching Services
  • My Other Books
  • Contact