He could have built an addition to the cabin if he’d had some mortar

Thoreau has always been a favorite of mine.  Perhaps, he’s a left over of my self-righteous youth – when everything was much more black and white.  His appeal is strong to anyone who holds conviction of mind and spirit in high esteem.  He lived a life of very little compromise.

But then I read this and I find a whole new side of Thoreau to admire.

When it came to book sales, well, let’s just say Henry David Thoreau was no J.K.Rowling.  Now considered a minor classic, his 1849 breakthrough A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers sold so poorly that children would travel to his house to get a look at the “strange man…[who] had written a book no copy of which had ever been sold.”  That was an exaggeration, but only slightly.  In fact, Thoreau’s publisher wrote to him asking what to do with all the unsold copies piling up in his office.  Thoreau took 706 remainders, which he stacked in his attic and tried to sell to anyone who dropped by.  “I now have a library of nearly nine hundred volumes,” he confessed at one point, “over seven hundred of which I wrote myself.”

Oh good grief.  I’m not too proud to tell you, I’ve been having a quiet nervous breakdown.  For some reason, I was so delusional that I assumed once I got an agent, the worry was over.  I never had a doubt publishers would be lining up to buy my manuscripts.  The agent was the hard part, now the money and fame rolls in, right?  I wouldn’t say I was really that delusional, but honestly, it never crossed my mind my manuscript wouldn’t be picked right up. 

The editor who inquired if I was interested in a series ultimately passed.  She sent an email to my agent saying,

“I absolutely love Amylynn’s voice, and her characters roped me in from the very beginning. She is a very talented writer. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that the story hook itself is different enough to stand out from what is already a very crowded shelf. So, regrettably, I will have to pass.  If Amylynn writes anything else in the future, I would love to take a look. I would love to find a project for us to work together on!”

All of that is wonderfully flattering all the way up to the point where she passes.

We’re still waiting on three more editors.  And I’m trying not to be depressed and to keep on writing.  Admittedly, it’s hard.