Rejection is Part of The Job

By Melissa Oates

Author Kate Scott

Kate Scott is a scriptwriter, playwriter and an award-winning children’s author, she has written over 30 books published and approximately 40 screenwriting credits, she also does exciting workshops for primary and secondary school children.

Kate realised that she wanted to be an author from very young age, ‘My father used to read me stories at bedtime, he had a deep distinctive voice and was a wonderful reader, so it was one of my favourite parts of the day, Reading soon became my number one activity. I began writing my own stories and poems and as soon as I realised it was something that adults did as a job, I wanted to do it too.’

Many aspiring authors struggle to choose between traditional or self-publishing, Kate choose traditional over self-publishing, ‘When I began submitting work, self-publishing wasn’t as established as it is now, and it was still seen negatively by many, I also had little interest in handling the other aspects of the book publishing process (typesetting, designing, printing, marketing, selling foreign rights, etc.) Self-publishing has many plus points (complete creative control, much better financial returns if the book does well) but without expert help in other areas (which come as a cost to secure) and with it being much harder to get booksellers to agree to take on a self-published over a traditionally published title, I feel that it makes more sense for me to stick with the traditional model.’ She explains.

Authors struggle to actually get anything published, Kate had the same struggles. ‘I don’t have an exact number, but it was a lot,’ she said. ‘I’m sure I could have wallpapered a room (or at least a wall) with rejection letters,’ She joked as she continued. ‘ I started off by submitting poems to literary magazines and it many times before my first acceptance, I can still remember the thrill of seeing that first poem print, with children’s books however it was some near misses with agents before winning a place in an anthology of new children’s writing that began my path to publication, but rejections are part of the job’ she finished.

Kate happily gives some advice for those aspiring authors, ‘Stick to the advice you see most frequently – to read constantly and to write as often as you can. When you read, try and analyse how an author has achieved your response, examine the rhythm and length of sentences when looking at the pace of a story. Note the imagery and vocabulary used to capture a mood or an atmosphere. Try to expand your vocabulary – browse a thesaurus and dictionary on a regular basis. Using exactly the right words will make your story stronger, try submitting stories or poems to literary magazines to start getting publication credits Learning to improve your writing by taking on board the comments you receive is vital. Having a writing CV will also help prove to agents and commissioning editors that you are serious in your ambitions – and the practice will help you become a better writer. If you work to retain the joy of storytelling, you will ride out the disappointments more easily – and the joy will show in your writing and make it more likely that you will succeed.’