At the conference this weekend I won honorable mention for a personal essay. The prompt was, What does it take to make you happy? My title, Happiness is All in My Mouth, made judges take note. Which is a reminder that the title is as important as content.
I also learned that agents are hungry for Young Adult with a boy as the main character. I don't write Y/A, but if you do, now you have the scoop.
I called home to ask hubby if I had received any mail, and he said, "Just junk."
That junk turned out to be an acceptance on a short piece that I had submitted along with a photo a couple months ago to Ideals, a division of Guide Posts. It was a timely piece about spring, and time was ticking. The editor asked for a rewrite without photo. I sent it off and it came back stamped, Address Unknown. So I tried again, wrote an apology. The grains of sand were rapidly trickling through the hour glass and I was afraid it was too late as spring had already sprung.
The manuscript was returned with a stamp of approval across it, ACCEPTED. It will be considered on a monthly basis now until it fits an issue, which means nearly a year from now, but I am happy and patient.
At the MO Writer's Guild Conference workshops the presenters spoke on the topic of social media, electronic connections to build your platform, get your name out there. There were a couple of instant success stories. For example, Amanda Hocking, twenty-six year old young woman from MN whose writing was far from polished but after so many rejections she got HERSELF out there, made her first million and now has been signed by an independent publisher and is making BIG bucks with her trylle series.
Justin, a teenager, signed onto twitter and tweeted, Sh*t My dad Says. It went viral,I think on You Tube too. An agent read/heard his stuff, signed this kid and now his blog has morphed into a TV series.
Okay, so I don't write vampire, try to keep it clean, but am not afraid of strong words or expressing opinions, and I'm not as computer savvy as I should be.
My question, should writers get on the bandwagon, compromise their principles and go with the flow of what is selling in our current youth-oriented, narcissistic culture? Is instant success fleeting like some of those million dollar lottery winners who whizz and burn? Is it a trend? Is there a place for personal essay, prose and poetry that will bring those writers success remotely comparable to that of these young people? Is it time to move over?
I have more questions than answers.