Sympathetic yet bracing advice for authors from a fellow writer.
A successful indie author and book marketing consultant outlines how writers can be resilient after rejections in this self-help guide.
Accept rejection and then transcend it. That’s the running theme in this work by Alvear (Blow Yourself Away, 2016, etc.), who shares his insights about the “mental toughness” that has allowed him to survive—indeed thrive (he says he makes six figures annually)—in book publishing as compared with many other authors. He allows for a “48-hour sulking period” because it’s important not to deny the pain of a rejection but stresses that brooding should be short-lived. He emphasizes that publishers somewhat randomly reward and rebuff authors (pointing out some notable mistakes, such as snubbing J.K. Rowling) and that the anxiety after rejection stems from a primitive brain trigger of feeling kicked out of the tribe. He recommends quickly connecting to one’s particular clan (family, supportive friends) to counter this hard-wiring and then engaging in the “1-2-3 Combo” of distraction by doing something pleasurable; staying silent about the rejection for two weeks; and distancing oneself from the situation, viewing it as an observer. This depersonalization technique should help an author transition to positive action, such as attending a writers’ workshop, instead of just wallowing in self-pity. The volume also covers challenges beyond submission rejections, particularly negative reviews, noting their upsides, including that readers can be intrigued enough by these to buy the book. In his new advice guide, Alvear is a voice of commiserating authority, revealing his own struggles (his agent couldn’t sell his manuscripts after the economic downturn, for example) while providing helpful psychological strategies to handle setbacks and the black holes of rumination and self-blame. While writers may not like hearing that rejections will keep coming and friends, not they, may capture “white rhino success,” Alvear provides an inspiring, empowering message. His final exhortation remains particularly uplifting: “Be true to your nature as a creative being: Create without regard to the results.”
Sympathetic yet bracing advice for authors from a fellow writer.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9977724-4-9
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Woodpecker Media
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This factual account of the Battle of the Alamo brings more vigorous personalities to life and effects more dramatic contrasts than many of its fictional competitors. Not only does Robert Penn Warren delineate battle strategies; he clarifies the ambitions and personal histories of the adversaries who met at Bexar and lays bare the stakes for which the battle was fought. The claims and crises of both Mexico and of the American settlers, desperadoes, and outlaws who lived in the no-man's-land state are dissected. Texas, hoping for equal rights in the new Mexico, after Spanish dominion was ousted, was settled 4-1 by ex-Americans. Then American immigration was halted by law — bringing to an end hopes of prosperity. And the rise of dictator Santa Anna meant an end to hopes for impartial jurisprudence. Boys and girls with any appetite for historical information will endorse this.
Pub Date: Aug. 28, 1958
ISBN: 1596872616
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More than 170 former law clerks—and at least some of the Justices—have broken the Supreme Court's traditional silence; and the result is a searing account of the Court's inner workings from 1967 to 1975 that shows the Chief Justice to be a fool and quite possibly a scoundrel, that exposes the other Justices to ridicule and contempt, that casts doubt on the highest court as a judicious arbiter of anything. Whether or not this wholesale disrobing is a good thing, it was probably inevitable once Burger, newly installed as Chief, attempted to muzzle his law clerks and went on to flout the Court's rules of procedure—withholding his vote so he could join the majority and assign himself the writing of the opinion. In rebuttal, the other Brethren ganged up on him—determined not to let his unrepresentative views pass as the majority opinion, not to let his ineptly drafted opinions go on public record and become legal precedent. Ultimately they succeeded in stealing his majority: a dissent draft-opinion became the 7-1 choice. Its announcement stands, here, as the book's dramatic peak. What the reader sees, then, is a lawless court, ruled by the vanities and proclivities of men. Woodward and Armstrong would not, however, call it a Burger Court: with the ends increasingly polarized (Brennan and Marshall vs. Burger and Rehnquist), with the Chief a legal featherweight and a flagrant usurper, the nonideological craftsmen of the center—they contend—took control. This assessment is not entirely borne out by post-1975 rulings, many of them written by Rehnquist for the majority; but it is incidental to the book's impact. With every legal and extra-legal mo, explicated, with comings-and-goings and conversations recounted in creepy de tail ("The door to Stewart's inner office was open, and they heard someone come into the outer office. There was a moment of silence. . ."), it makes compulsive, unnerving, electric reading. Here is an elderly, intractable Hugo Black invoking a technicality to thwart the majority and bar innumerable Blackmun was dumbfounded. . . now he was a petitioners from the courts ("justice and had the same power"); here is Douglas, "never a man to procrastinate before wreaking havoc," sending a savage memo to the Chief (text provided); here is Stewart, haunted by the Sherlock Holmes case of "the dog that didn't bark," suspecting the Chief of "purposely leaving unanswered some crucial, but hidden, question." And, for comic relief, here are the annual (blue) "movie days." But only once, apropos of Douglas and two put-upon clerks, does the account become truly petty, and only very infrequently are thoughts imputed for which there is no plausible source. Dirty linen or not, most of this has to be believed—and it's dynamite.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0743274024
Page Count: 596
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
