The Power of Persistence

Most successful writers will tell you that the road to success is lined with persistence. Yes, talent is important, but hard work is even more important. I've known this for a long time, but was reminded of this when I was looking over some articles I wrote for the News-Gazette a few years ago. One was an interview with one of my favorite children's authors who is one of the most gracious and generous people I know, Alice B. McGinty. Alice has written several children's picture books, including non-fiction books for elementary kids about Ghandi and Darwin, and my daughter's favorites, Eliza's Kindergarten Surprise and Eliza's Kindergarten Pet.

When I interviewed Alice for the article, she told me all about her career, and it was so inspiring. It was so inspiring that I wanted to share parts of it with you on WOW! because I think it will inspire you too. And I know that some of you are busy with your first weekend of NaNoWriMo, so you can use a little inspiration!

Here are some highlights from my talk with Alice:

• When Alice talks to children and adults about writing, she likes to "emphasize persistence. It took me many, many tries, and I didn't give up," she said. She is referring to the 13 years where she wrote and submitted picture book manuscripts to publishers before Dial Books For Young Readers finally accepted Ten Little Lambs for publication.
• When Alice first knew she wanted to write for children, she "didn't realize you could do it full time." She wrote a poem and a story for two children's magazines, but she wanted to focus on books. She started with a picture book manuscript about a child with disabilities, submitted it to publishers, and collected rejections. Then, she went to a book signing and asked the author for some advice about writing for children.
• The author told her to join SCBWI (www.scbwi.org). Alice followed the advice, which she believed started her on her career path. Through SCBWI, she learned it was easier to get a children's nonfiction book published. She wrote a manuscript about nutrition and sent it to Rosen Publishing, which she'd read was accepting manuscripts in an SCBWI Bulletin. Rosen Publishing's imprint, PowerKids Press, held onto the manuscript for a long time and sent it back with a note for revisions. This eventually turned into her first published book, Eating Right, for the educational market in 1997.
• Between 1997 and 2008, she wrote 35 books for the educational market!

If she would have given up after that first rejection, she would have never written all those educational books, gotten a literary agent, been an Illinois rep for SCBWI, or wrote several successful traditionally published picture books. She didn't give up after one rejection; actually, she didn't give up after many rejections and many years. Check out everything she is doing here. 

What I wanted to show you with this post is that persistence pays off. This is a real-life example of hard work leading to success. Whether it's finishing your manuscript this November, marketing your book, getting a story published in a literary journal, or getting a job as an editor--don't give up. 

Margo L. Dill is a writer, speaker, editor, instructor, and mom, living in St. Louis. You can find out more about her writing on her website here, her editing business here, and the classes she teaches for WOW! here.