Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Author Joyce Oroz: Don't Give Up..........Joyce Oroz

Author Joyce Oroz: Don't Give Up..........Joyce Oroz: Best-Sellers Initially Rejected Mural from previous life Add caption I recently came across this information and want to share ...

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Don't Give Up..........Joyce Oroz



Best-Sellers Initially Rejected

Mural from previous lifeAdd caption
I recently came across this information and want to share it with my reader and writer friends. 
Some writers continually submit the same manuscript until it is accepted. Others chose to do a more polished draft before sending it out again. A select few learn from the lessons of submissions, to write a completely new book.

What they all have in common is a persistence to never give up on their dream; a dream that has elevated them from writer, to best-selling author.

They have written some of the most critically praised and commercially successful books of all time. In some cases their enormous sales were so consistent that they even kept their publishers afloat.

Yet in spite of this phenomenal success, every single one of these best-selling authors was initially rejected. Literary agents and publishers informed them in an endless stream of rejection letters that nobody would be interested in reading their book.

Here is an extenstive collection of the some of the biggest errors of judgement in publishing history.

After 5 years of continual rejection, the writer finally lands a publishing deal: Agatha Christie. Her book sales are now in excess of $2 billion. Only William Shakespeare has sold more.

The Christopher Little Literary Agency receives 12 publishing rejections in a row for their new client, until the eight-year-old daughter of a Bloomsbury editor demands to read the rest of the book. The editor agrees to publish but advises the writer to get a day job since she has little chance of making money in children’s books. Yet Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling spawns a series where the last four novels consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, on both sides of the Atlantic, with combined sales of 450 million.

Louis L’Amour received 200 rejections before Bantam took a chance on him. He is now their best ever selling author with 330 million sales.

“Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.” A rejection letter sent to Dr Seuss. 300 million sales and the 9th best-selling fiction author of all time.

“You have no business being a writer and should give up.” Zane Grey ignores the advice. There are believed to be over 250 million copies of his books in print.

140 rejections stating “Anthologies don’t sell” until the Chicken Soup for the Soul series by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen sells 125 million copies.

The years of rejection do not break his spirit. He only becomes more determined to succeed. When he eventually lands a publishing deal, such is the demand for his fiction that it is translated into over 47 languages, as The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis goes on to sell over 100 million copies.

“It is so badly written.” The author tries Doubleday instead and his little book makes an impression. The Da Vinci Code sells 80 million.

After two years of rejections stating that her fiction would have no readership, Reilly and Lee agree to publish The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo, launching the career of the best-selling author Judy Blume. Combined sales: 80 million.

Having sold only 800 copies on its limited first release, the author finds a new publisher and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho sells 75 million.

“We feel that we don’t know the central character well enough.” The author does a rewrite and his protagonist becomes an icon for a generation as The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger sells 65 million.

5 publishers reject L.M. Montgomery‘s debut novel. Two years after this rejection, she removes it from a hat box and resubmits. L.C. Page & Company agree to publish Anne of Green Gables and it goes on to sell 50 million copies.

“I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.” Shunned by all the major publishers, the author goes to France and lands a deal with Olympia Press. The first 5000 copies quickly sell out. But the author Vladimir Nabokov now sees his novel, Lolita, published by all those that initially turned it down, with combined sales of 50 million.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was rejected so many times she decided to self-publish 250 copies. It has now sold 45 million.

“Nobody will want to read a book about a seagull.” Richard Bach‘s Jonathan Livingston Seagull goes on to sell 44 million copies.

“Undisciplined, rambling and thoroughly amateurish writer.” But Jacqueline Susann refuses to give up and her book the Valley of the Dolls sells 30 million.

Margaret Mitchell gets 38 rejections from publishers before finding one to publish her novel Gone With The Wind. It sells 30 million copies.




Sunday, January 17, 2016

Being "Different"...........by Joyce Oroz




As a long-time mural artist 
and author I have written 
articles and interviews 
about fellow artists and 
writers. What surprises 
me most about these people 
is how many of them are 
dyslectic or were dyslectic 
as children. I don’t have a PHD
behind my name, but I have 
taken my own survey on 
the subject because….
you guessed it, I’m 
dyslexic—not so much these 
days as a senior adult but very 
much growing up. Reading, 
writing and arithmetic were the 
scariest things in my preteen world. I hated school and 
the embarrassment of trying to read out loud in class. 
My attention span was minus zero and I couldn’t even 
play the kazoo.


In the second grade I decided, the heck 
with school and walked home, one mile 
along the edge of the Big Basin Highway. 
Mom just about had heart failure when 
she saw me. I thought it was cool to be 
home and see what she did around the house while 
my brother and sister were at school. I remember 
Mom trying to teach me how to tie my shoes. 
I just didn’t get it, so when I was alone I figured 
out a way to get the job done. To this day I have 
never seen anyone tie a bow the way I do.
The one thing that saved me and kept me in school 
was art. I was able to draw and paint pretty well 
at an early age. I won the Smokey the Bear poster 
contest in third and sixth grades. When the three 
R’s became too much for me, I would retreat 
to my coloring books, clay sculpture and day-dreaming.  
Being dyslexic is tough on young people. One must 
think “outside the box” in order to keep up with 
one’s peers. Dyslexic people work twice as hard 
to accomplish half as much. But as we age we 
are blessed with a creativity brought on out 
of need. Some of us find happiness and success
 in the “Art” world, some in creative writing 
and others invent things. Dyslexia can be a great 
gift once a person makes it through school—then 
the learning begins. All the information thrown at 
us in elementary school and high school suddenly 
makes sense.

Dyslexic people often 
function very well in 
today’s computer world. 
They are the inventors. 
Their spelling might be 
sub-standard, but there 
is no limit to what their 
creative, inventive minds 
will come up with next. 
I discovered there is a 
lot of dyslexia in my 
family, many 
“late bloomers” such as me, 
thankful for the odd gift 
of being different. The gift that keeps on giving—
sorry for the cliché.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A Borrowed Poem...........Joyce Oroz

Getting old is relative. You can always find someone younger to envy, but you can always find someone older too. Whatever your age, be happy now, today, we don't know what tomorrow will bring.
Here is "A Little Poem", so true it hurts!
Another year has passed And we're all a little older.
Last summer felt hotter
And winter seems much colder.

There was a time not long ago
When life was quite a blast.              
Now I fully understand
About 'Living in the Past'

We used to go to weddings,
Football games and lunches..
Now we go to funeral homes
And after-funeral brunches.

We used to have hangovers,
From parties that were gay.
Now we suffer body aches
And wile the night away.

We used to go out dining,
And couldn't get our fill.                                


Now we ask for doggie bags,
Come home and take a pill.

We used to often travel
To places near and far.
Now we get sore arses
From riding in the car.

We used to go to nightclubs
And drink a little booze.
Now we stay home at night
And watch the evening news.

That, my friend is how life is,
And now my tale is told.
So, enjoy each day and live it up...
Before you're too darn old!
author unknown
Hope you all have a healthy 
& prosperous New Year !!!! (2016)..