Book update!

Popularity, priorities, and what it means to win.

Would you rather be average at something and really popular, or a brilliant expert but no one knows who you are?

Last summer, I sent my book proposal to a major publisher through an exclusive writing contest and received an honorable mention. To be honest, when I first received the email, pride or accomplishment wasn’t even on my radar. I was too gutted to be grateful or proud. The top three winners received publishing deals, and I got fourth place (I was the first listed honorable mention, and I am choosing to interpret that as fourth place).

After about 24 hours, I shifted from gutted to grateful.

In the writing community I was a part of, to enter the contest, people wrote kind and encouraging comments to one another. I also learned that some folks had been part of the writing community for over five years and had submitted the same book proposal multiple times without any acknowledgement. It put into perspective what it meant to receive an honorable mention. At first, I felt guilty for not having more respect for it. I shifted from gutted to guilty, to grateful.

As I allowed gratitude to seep into my being, reverence for my win followed.

Once I shifted my mental and emotional state, positive thoughts came next. I realized that my book proposal was good enough to capture the attention of a major publisher, and I was confident I could try again. The few writers who received an honorable mention would receive feedback from the panel editors—this was huge. This is the kind of feedback people pay money for. I waited over a month for my feedback.

What arrived in my inbox was a brief blurb, all positive. I didn’t want positive feedback. I wanted the editors to rip it apart and tell me where I could improve. However, their feedback felt honest and genuine, and it helped me realize that maybe I’m on the right track and closer to a deal than I thought.

I continued to recognize the value in this honorable mention, which I was once gutted about. Not only did I receive feedback from this publisher, but I could use their feedback as a hook in my query letters to pitch agents. If literary agents could see how close I was to a deal and what the publisher had to say about my book, then surely they would take me on as a client.