A Bit About Failing and Signing a Book Deal

M a n o r M i n o r P r e s s

While I have been hard at work—or play, depending on your definition—writing Scarlet and the Barrier's Fall, the wonderful folks at Manor Minor Press have offered me a four book deal to publish the Scarlet Hopewell Series.  I am thrilled at this new opportunity, and am incredibly excited that the series now has a publisher.  While self-publishing has been an educational and rewarding experience, I readily welcome the luxuries in life that come with having editors, book set designers, illustrators, and marketing.  I can't say I ever really got good at any of those things anyway, but it is a great relief to now put all my concentrated efforts into writing.

"Many of life's failures are people who didn't realize how close they were to success when they gave up." -Thomas Edison 

So, I thought I would take this opportunity to share a story of a more personal nature in the hopes that those who may be discouraged by the "business" of writing may find a bit of inspiration.  I think sometimes a story like this has more impact when success is still in its infant stage than it does coming from a best selling icon.  Also, I can always use a bit of encouragement myself—hence the quotes between my paragraphs. 

“It is fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” - Bill Gates

Like many authors, I imagine, my love of books and writing goes back to quite a young age.  I've been writing little books and stories from the age of about six (as a side note, I'm quite pleased to say that my daughters seem to be following in my footsteps in that regard).  At the wise old age of seventeen, having all the answers, no clue what failure even meant, and quite ready to conquer the world, I wrote my first novel on a dare.  A former friend told me, during a marathon session of the computer game Pirates, and while lamenting how terrible the pirate movie that we had recently watched had been (this was well before Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), that it just wasn't possible to write a good pirate story anymore.  Challenge accepted.  I began William the next day.  Now, whether or not I succeeded is not for me to say, everyone seemed to enjoy the book, but everyone didn't include the New York Times or anyone I didn't know personally for that matter.  What did matter was that I was hooked.  I knew what I wanted to be, and soon, I would be the youngest, best selling novelist of all time.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt

I wrote another book, finished during my freshman year at William and Mary, and promptly sent it off to agents.  I don't recall now where I got the names of these "agents", but I got a reply from a number of them—mostly admonishing me for not following their submission guidelines—but one, who told me that I reminded her of a young Harper Lee, took me on as a client.  I, of course, was not surprised.  I was eighteen and fantastic in every possible way.  That agent, turned out to be a fraud.  After spending 500 dollars to get her to edit my manuscript (your agent is not your editor: lesson 1), and waiting for over a year for something to happen, I let the contract with her expire, and sadly to say, let discouragement be my guide.  The business of getting books published was not for me.  When I met my future wife the next year, I showed her my book, and when she didn't instantly exalt my genius, the vicious circle of self doubt was complete.  I stopped writing for nearly three years (Don't do that: lesson number 2.  Everything written is worth something.  Even if it's a learning experience).

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something.  But I can't accept not trying." -Michael Jordan

To say that I quit writing does not mean the stories stopped coming.  They did.  My imagination was full of them, my restless mental wanderings just no longer had a healthy outlet.  Eventually though, sometime towards the end of my senior year and my service in the army, the keyboard came calling again.  Mimic the Devil was the result, and I will proudly say, it is a great book.  Dark, violent, and full of anger, descending madness and redemption, this book was destined for the best seller list.  Query letters followed, this time to agents vetted by the Writer's Market.  Rejection letters followed in the weeks and months after that, most, form letters that seemed to say, "I didn't actually bother to read your letter, but since you enclosed a self addressed stamped envelope, here's some meaningless prater to ensure you realize how much you've wasted my time."  I still have quite the collection of these beauties, even a handful with actual responses from well meaning real human beings.  This time around though, my wife was kinda impressed, I felt like I had written a great book, and I only let the discouragement of the form letter avalanche keep me from resubmitting, not from writing all together.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

More books followed.  More agent rejection letters followed.  Then came Scarlet Hopewell and my wife was very impressed.  I'm talking, eyes wide, holy cow, this is incredible, impressed.  This time, I decided I was done with agents and went straight to the publishers.  The problem with this strategy was that Scarlet and the Keepers of Light was unpolished and not professionally edited.  Scholastic showed genuine interest, but Scarlet wasn't ready for the big time quite yet.

“Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” - J.K. Rowling

And then came Amazon.  At 34 years old, my dreams of being a professional author, while still present, took a back burner to my desire to share my stories.  Amazon gave me that outlet.  I self-published and people started reading.  I didn't have professional editing, cover art, or book design, but at least people where reading and saying good things about what they read.  I would be lying if I said that this brought about total satisfaction, but it was a start.

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

Enter my fantastic, brilliant, and detail oriented editor.  I found out about her through a friend, who found her by looking up who had edited for Daniel Silva.  Without the same desperation for success I experienced in my youth, I wrote to her.  She accepted me as a client and within a matter of six months, Scarlet and the Keepers of Light became a polished, fantastic novel (nothing can replace a great professional editor: lesson number 3).

 “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert F. Kennedy

And so this stage of my writing career ends as I began the post, with a publishing contract for the Scarlet Hopewell Series.  Does the next stage include world wide fame?  Well, you never know— a bit of the seventeen year old kid in me still.  The point of sharing my story was just to show, as many other authors and artists have, that what matters more than almost anything when trying to accomplish a dream is perseverance.  You will be discouraged.  You will inevitably fail.  Learn from the mistakes of others and most of all, from these failures you experience.  Don't give up.  Keep writing.  Keep painting.  Keep singing, acting, and sculpting.  Everyone has a story to tell.  If you are one of those who has more than one, you owe it to yourself to keep sharing them with world.  I'll leave you with the wise words of Stephen King, who I think puts it better than I can:       

“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” -Stephen King

    

   

Becoming the Ultimate Me...

Fifty-five days.  That's what I'm giving myself.  I've been on a bit of a quest of late, actually since the passing of my Nana, to better myself.  While my focus has been on my mind, I find it's time to expand my focus.  I've also learned enough about myself over the course of the past 35 years to know that without a challenge (betting, double dog dare style, usually work best) I fall away from my goals.  So 55 days worth of eating like a Timothy Ferris, whole foods addict and regular exercise is my promise to my lovely wife and my challenge to myself.  I'll let you know on June 2nd whether I win or lose this challenge, but making it incited me to share some of what I've learned over the past few months regarding memory, cognition and some mentalist type fun.
If you've visited the What I'm Reading page on my blog you have seen the list of books I read regarding memory and cognition.  Some where quite helpful and insightful, some just plain fun and others a bit more on the psychology textbook side.  Altogether though, they enabled me to memorize some pretty useful things related to my work amazingly fast (like in the course of an afternoon), easily remember large numbers, become more observant and even remember what exactly my wife sent me to the grocery store to pick up.

Photograph by Sasse, Author; UPI; March 14, 1941

There is a common misconception that smart people are born that way.  That Einstein was always a genius and Newton the farmer, who did so poorly in school he was eventually removed and was even a miserable failure on his family farm, was born to be a mental incompetent.  Albert Einstein didn't even speak until he was four years old and couldn't read at age seven; his parents and teachers believed him to be handicapped.  Sir Isaac Newton quit farming, found his way to Cambridge and became the father of modern physics.  Sure, people are born with certain innate abilities and as such have advantages over those who aren't quite so lucky.  But the advantages of some do not equate to the limitations of others.  In fact, studies have shown that a person's innate intelligence is far less important than what a person does with their mind.  The work they do in study, their exposure to new thoughts and ideas and their personal motivation.  A less "intelligent" person can far excel the knowledge and intellect of a born genius through study, action and perseverance.


Which brings us to some of the things I have learned over the past few months.  Although by technical definition, using IQ scores and Mensa type classifications, I may be considered a genius, I am far from being as productive or even intelligent as I could or should be.  Just take a quick look had how bad I am at spelling and grammar if you need an example.  A lot of this comes down to laziness.  I never had to try in school and so I rarely did.  I have found in my middle thirties that I have done myself a great disservice and have acquired far less knowledge than I could have.  It saddens me that it took my grandmother dieing to come to this realization but the first thing I learned and will mention, is that it is never too late and regret is a useless emotion.  As a practical learning tool, regret can be quite valuable, but not as an emotional state.  It will only hold you back.  Looking forward then, how does one improve their memory, knowledge and overall intelligence. 


Step one: Read.  Read some more.  And then...keep reading.  There's no shortcut to this, no way around it.  Reading is the best way to improve the way you think, expand your mind and outlook, and learn knew things.  If you don't like to read...too bad.  Start with a subject that interests you, it doesn't matter what it is, and get started.  Even subjects which seem polar opposite of an intellectual endeavor  will lead to crazy things like thoughts and ideas and then to new subjects to explore.  The best thing about reading is that the more you read, the better you get and the more you will enjoy.  Your vocabulary will increase, your knowledge base will grow and before you know it you'll be a much more intelligent person.

Step two: Pay attention.  Might seem like an unusually simple step.  After all, your teachers and parents have probably told you to pay attention countless times.  But that isn't exactly what I mean, or a least isn't the whole of what I'm getting at.  In order to truly experience all the things happening around you, to learn and expand your mind and mental acuity, you have to take an active role in what you see and experience.  As our hero Sherlock Holmes once put it to Dr. Watson, but could have said to any one of us, "you see but you do not observe."  A great deal of the reason people don't remember all that they could or even notice things which might be of benefit or interest to them, is that they don't pay attention.  They go through life on autopilot.  Taking the simple step of actively being attentive will do more for an immediate effect to your memory and retention than any trick or mnemonic you'll learn in the books I've suggested.  In fact, most of those books tell you exactly that.

Step three: Try new things.  People who keep active, both physically and mentally, with knew hobbies, sports and activities, live longer, stay sharper and remain happier.

Step four: Which is really a part of step three, but deserves singling out: Play games.  Crosswords, Sudouko, Video Games, Luminousity, Word-searches, Cards, Boardgames.  All of these activities are simply mind expanding and enhancing workouts for your brain in disguise.  Want to think faster, smarter and longer?  Play games.

Step five: Play around with the myriad of memory devices out there.  From loci, mnemonics and memory palaces to peg systems and mind mapping, you'll be amazed that the feats of memory you can accomplish.  The best book to start with is The Memory Book, but don't stop there.  Dozens of good books are out there and each has a spin that just might resonate with you and open new doors to memorization and learning.  See step one!  

Step six: Eat good stuff.  I'm not talking about dieting to lose weight or build muscle here.  More of that to come after my 55 day experiment.  What I'm talking about is a bit simpler, but often overlooked in today's diets.  You need to add things to your diet that you know are good for you.  Now obviously you can pick up any two diet books and get more contradictory information than you would at a political debate but I'll break it down for you.  You know what things are good for you.  It's the stuff your mom made you eat before you could get up from the table.  Need help?  I'll make it even easier.  If it's green...eat it.  If it's red, orange, purple or blue...eat it.  If you can eat raw...add it to you diet.  The result is the addition of crucial vitamins and micro-nutrients that will keep your brain running at peak. 

Now I'm not an expert by any means, but hopefully I've helped get you started.  Remember step one.  That's where you'll find the expert advice to go with my bit of rhetoric.  I've noticed a great improvement in my life and my desire and ability to learn new things and even hone the knowledge I already thought I had.  Give it a try.  Worst thing that will happen is that you'll read a book you didn't mean to read.  With rare exception, that never hurt anybody.

Brandon

Addendum:  I wrote this post 7 days ago but had not had the opportunity to send it.  That said, I have only 48 days to go in my experiment.  Just to remove any loopholes I might give myself.