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 Travis Griffith shares some of his own personal experiences in regards to writing and selling his children's book, Your Father Forever.
A writing career sounds so glamorous, doesn’t it?
Who wouldn’t want a job working from home and getting paid to see your name flashed across print publications, books, and computer screens worldwide?
How hard could it be to put fingers to keyboard and scribe cohesive sentences that grab your audience, leaving them laughing or crying, disturbed or derailed, informed or inspired, but most of all, hooked and desperate for more?
It’s a valid dream; one many people share. But good god friends, writing is hard!
And because it’s hard, it leaves a lot of failure in its wake. Even people with a real passion for the written word have given up, frustrated at the lack of attention, the lack of money, or the lack of publication.
The people who succeed do so with a combination of skill, good luck, and timing. Many of the people who fail do so only because their will to keep trying runs out before the right combination arrives.
How do I know? I’m on both sides of it.
I’m lucky enough to have a book published, but still struggle with the realities and challenges of getting more published.
My book is a children’s book called Your Father Forever and it’s a perfect example of good luck and timing (the skill portion can be argued!). Because I’m published, people often ask me how they also can become published authors, a question for which I really don’t have an answer. I just answer it by telling the story of how I got published and then let the person decide if there’s anything inspiring or relevant to his or her own situation. The Writing ProcessFor me, the greatest ideas tend to strike when I’m doing things completely unrelated to writing. Whether I’m brushing my teeth or mowing the lawn, I always have a notepad nearby. And sometimes even a pen!
After scrawling down an idea, I later sit down and analyze it. Sometimes ideas end up as the beginnings of a book, sometimes they end up as a newspaper column or blog. And sometimes they end up in the garbage can.
Occasionally, an idea will strike with so much force I have no choice but to drop everything and follow it all the way through. Such was the case one night in early 2002.
My son, Preston, was just a newborn and like all newborns, he cried. A lot. On this particular night, I was having a really hard time with the lack of sleep, and his wailing at 2 a.m. did not help with my crankiness. I reluctantly crawled out of bed and stumbled into his room, where the sight of his perfect, sad little face triggered something in me. I had this realization that he won’t need me in the middle of the night forever. It was one of those “ah-ha” moments where suddenly everything becomes clear. I remember standing with that baby in my arms and looking down on him, wondering what else he’d need me for, but only temporarily, as he grew.
That’s when I told myself I’d wake up with my son at night for as long he needed me to. I went back to bed that night and scrawled out a list of other things I’d do for him as he grew up—things like tossing him up into the air to make him laugh, helping him learn to read, or holding onto his bike.
Before the sun rose, I had a poem of sorts that I had titled “As Long As You Want Me To.” My wife read it and said, “Wow… this needs to be a book.”
And that’s when the work began!
I believe that ideas go as far as the work behind them, and I wanted this to be a book. I began researching publishers. I sent queries letters. I sent manuscripts.
The Publication Process
And then I got rejections. LOTS of rejections. Of course in my mind I was expecting the rights to my perfect gem of a book would go to the lucky publisher who responded first. Nothing like a little reality to ground a guy’s high expectations!
I figure I sent out about 60 queries and manuscripts, and probably received 59 rejections over about 6 months. Then, one day there was a message on my machine from an editor interested in discussing my project. A few more phone calls were exchanged, and then I heard the words that writers love to hear, “Congratulations, you’ve sold you’re first book.”
It’s actually quite remarkable that it happened so fast, though I didn’t know it at the time. I have a friend who has been trying to get a book published for over 10 years. It’s not that I’m any more skilled than she is, in fact I’d say the opposite is true. I just happened to have the right combination of a good story, good luck, and good timing. My publisher was looking for a book aimed at fathers, and my proposal fit the bill.
The process of actually going from signed contract to published book is another blog , but I’ll say that my original middle-of-the-night poem transformed over the course of two and a half years into a vastly different story, but one I’m equally proud of.
The Proud Published Author TodayFast forward to 2008, and I’m still a struggling writer. Some things have changed; I’ve given up the corporate world and become a full-time writer. Not because the royalties from Your Father Forever have enabled me to do so; they haven’t. I did it so I can devote more time to my craft and continue sending queries for my new children’s books and a novel.
While I do have some writing successes behind me, my goals are still much larger but my will to make them reality is stronger.
Yet, the rejections still come… and I continue hoping for the next wave of good luck and perfect timing while taking the time to learn from other writers while constantly improving my abilities. Previous Posts:
Travis Griffith, who recently left behind the corporate marketing world choosing family and writing in lieu of “a comfortable life” financially, is a former atheist trying to define what leading a spiritual life really means. His children’s book, Your Father Forever, published in 2005 by Illumination Arts Publishing Company, Inc. captures only a fraction of his passion for fatherhood. We’re glad to have him aboard.
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