Stockett’s advice for writers and anyone else who keeps hitting a brick wall? “Give in to your obsession.”

In the end, I received 60 rejections for The Help. But letter number 61 was the one that accepted me. After my five years of writing and three and a half years of rejection, an agent named Susan Ramer took pity on me. What if I had given up at 15? Or 40? Or even 60? Three weeks later, Susan sold The Help to Amy Einhorn Books.

For Stockett, 61 was the magic number. With The Year of Fog, my magic number wasn’t far behind, and while Fog wasn’t the runaway bestseller that The Help was, it did enjoy several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold 400,000 copies at Target alone, something I’d never dreamed of. Not bad for a book that received dozens of rejections.

I like to believe that every good book has a magic number, that books will find their way into the hands of a receptive agent and editor given enough time and persistence. For me, the agent was Valerie Borchardt, and the editor was Caitlin Alexander, and I consider my book very fortunate to have fallen into their hands.

So if you have a book that keeps coming back with a form letter that says, “Unfortunately, this book is not quite right for us,” don’t give up. Envision in your mind a magic number. You don’t know it yet. No one does. It could be twenty rejections from now, or forty. Or it could be just one.

Read Kathryn Stockett’s essay for More Magazine here.

Related: Polish your novel or memoir with the Book Doctor. Comprehensive manuscript services to move your book to the top of the slush pile.

In July’s obit section, WORD magazine remembers John Carter, songwriter, producer, and A&R man extraordinaire, who “was instrumental in the careers of and a passionate supporter of Bob Seger, The Motels, Sammy Hagar, Melissa Etheridge, Tori Amos, David and David, and … Tina Turner.”

WORD quotes an interview for industry website Taxi, in which Carter said that “the one thing he had learned was that over 70 percent of hit records have titles containing nouns.”

All kinds of songs become successful, and therefore can be held up as examples to encourage someone that what they’re doing is right, but I think, in general, it’s an English lesson. Lyrics are important It’s about a story. It’s about a great title. The title should have a big noun in it. Some of the best songs are even proper nouns. Nouns, baby, nouns!”

If you think about it, the same principle applies to good writing of any kind. One, “it’s about a story.” And two, it’s specific: proper nouns are nothing if not specific. It’s the very old, very true creative writing 101 lesson: you get to the universal by way of the personal. You reach many by focusing on the struggle of one. It’s easy to find great books with a proper noun in the title:

Ulysses
Lolita
Portnoy’s Complaint
The Great Gatsby
Jane Eyre
Madame Bovary

Okay, you get the picture. Of course, this is not to say it has to be a proper noun. I can think of equally exciting books that have only improper nouns (I don’t think that’s a thing, really, but I like the sound of it) in the title.

To Kill a Mockingbird
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Bluest Eye
Things Fall Apart (what can be less specific than things?)
Brave New World

You’ll note, however, that all of the books in the latter category get very specific very quickly, with characters whose personal and unique struggles have a universal quality. Scout moves us not because she’s archetypal, but because she is a very specific child at a very specific time and place, engaged in a universal struggle played out in the tragedy of one man and one town.

Two years later I went to grad school—one year in Arkansas, which I quit, another in Miami, which I finished—and during that time I continued writing stories on the duo-doc, although in much better apartments. One was a seventh-floor studio on Miami Beach. This was 1996, and the $700/month studio was hard on my budget, but I paid for it with my teaching stipend from the University of Miami and considered it my own writing retreat. Those were solitary years, and the solitude suited me. I had a feverish work ethic in those days when it came to writing, and it was in graduate school that I began publishing short stories in literary magazines. That little taste of getting my stories out in the world was all it took to keep me going.

On to New York City in 1998. More jobs, more writing of stories, publications here and there, and rejections galore. Then, in 2000, on the cusp of turning thirty, living in San Francisco with my fiancé and teaching composition at City College, a phone call from the Associated Writing Programs to say that The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress had won the AWP Award for Fiction and would be published by University of Massachusetts Press. Bliss and more bliss. That book was my most exciting publication to date, because it was my first. To this day, that collection of linked stories, which probably sold no more than a couple thousand copies, is closer to my heart than any of my subsequent books.

Two years later, after many rejections from agents and publishers, my first novel, Dream of the Blue Room, was released by MacAdam/Cage, a small San Francisco publisher. Sales were, shall we say, quiet. Four years passed. More rejections. But along the way, at the Sewanee Writers Conference, I meg Georges and Ann Borchardt, a wonderful husband-and-wife agent team who had been helping books find their way into the light. When my next book, The Year of Fog, was ready to go out to publishers, Ann and Georges passed me on to their daughter, Valerie, who has been my agent ever since. She stuck with me through many rejections, and The Year of Fog finally saw the light in 2007. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller and a major bestseller in France. I never would have guessed! But having a smart, honest, enthusiastic agent who had faith in me–not to mention a wonderful editor named Caitlin Alexander who had faith in my book–made all the difference.

My third novel, published a year later, was No One You Know. It’s a book about the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories others tell about us. It’s also a book about sisters, and obsession. And I didn’t realize until I was halfway into it that it’s the book I’ve been wanting to write, in many ways, for the last ten years. And in this vein a character from my very first published story makes an appearance, however brief, in the final chapter of No One You Know. In the final chapter of the book, the narrator, Ellie Enderlin, is walking through the streets of San Francisco late at night and finds herself on an unfamiliar block. “In a second-floor apartment, a girl in a yellow nightgown walked slowly past the window. A tall figure moved toward her. A slender arm reached out to turn off a lamp, and the room went dark. Everything about the moment was startlingly familiar. Had I been here before? Had someone described this very scene to me? Or maybe, I had simply read it all in a book. Sometimes it felt as if books and life formed a strange origami, the intricate folds and secret shadows so inextricably connected, it was impossible to tell one from the other.”

Well, I should admit, first off, that I’m not really that young. I grew up in the South, where a lady is never supposed to reveal her age, but since the publisher of my first novel decided to put my birthdate on the title page, it’s pretty much out there. Matters of youthfulness or lack thereof aside, I get a lot of questions from aspiring writers, frequently about publishing, sometimes of the “I want to write a book, and I’m sure it will be a bestseller if you introduce me to your agent” variety. I found Christine’s question particularly refreshing, because it wasn’t about the business of writing, but the process of writing, and, more specifically, the beginning of writing–you know, that thing you actually have to do before you go out in search of literary fame and fortune. So I thought I’d share my response here:

Yes, Christine, I do believe a person can begin being a writer at age 60! Certainly, you’ve seen more and done more than someone who sets out to be a writer at the age of 20 or 30. More important, you’ve already met the first two requirements of being a writer: one, you have the desire, and two, you’re a reader.

Desire comes first because, unlike reporting to a job you don’t like in an office you find stifling, it’s almost impossible to write if you don’t want to to do it. I know this because, way back when, I was a telemarketer. I never had the slightest desire to be a telemarketer, and in fact I found the conversations on the flimsy headset quite embarrassing and unpleasant, but I managed to do it anyway, and collect the meager checks that paid for my meager duplex in a meager neighborhood in Knoxville, across the road from a dismal shopping-center, where I spent my first paycheck on a smelly sectional sofa from the Salvation Army, which I dragged home, piece by piece, and turned into a bed. Meanwhile, I wanted very much to be a writer, and though writing did not result in a paycheck, meager or otherwise, I wrote anyway, early in the morning and late at night, and on snow days when I dodged work by claiming to be unable to extract my Toyota from the driveway. I wrote in the cold, because the duplex had no proper heating, and I wrote on a Mac duo-doc (which was not meant to stand alone, but I had only the duo doc, not the docking station), and I wrote despite the fact that almost every story I sent out got rejected. Back then, it was desire, and little else, that kept me going.

As for formal study, anyone who has spent a life reading has a background in literature. Although I studied literature in college, I honestly think I was too young, and too scattered, to take in a lot of it at the time. Most of it simply looked like a syllabus to me. A far better education has been the last fifteen years spent finding and reading books and authors that were not assigned to me in any class, many of which have, I’m sure, influenced my writing.

So Christine, no, you are not crazy to want to begin writing at the age of 60. Far from it. It could be argued that writing at any age is a very sane act, as it requires us to make sense of what we see in the world, to put into words our own unique perspective, our own experiences, and to make concrete and tangible art out of the messy abstractions of our lives.

So happy reading to you, Christine, and happy writing!

• Write about your most memorable experience with fear. Begin with an actual event, but allow the story to take on its own “truth” as you write, veering away from the facts of the actual event.

• Write about something that took place in the middle of the night. Allow the reader experience night without ever using the word “night.”

• Write down the names of ten people you have known personally: the first ten names that come into your head. Then, write three adjectives to describe each person (only one of the adjectives may be a physical description such as “tall” or “obese”). Next, give a specific example to demonstrate each of the three characteristics you have noted. For example, if you use the word “brave” to describe someone, think of a specific time when s/he acted bravely

1. What is the worst thing you ever did? Write about it.
2. Write about a time when you were very angry. What motivated your anger? How did you display/hide it? How did others respond to your anger?
3. Many people have a box of keepsakes–letters, photographs, awards, etc. Explore this box. Write about each item it contains.
4. Write about something you saw and have been unable to forget.
5. Write about a recurring dream in first person (I) present (as if it is happening now).
6. Write about the moment you entered womanhood/manhood.
7. Write about your first experience with sexuality.
8. Write about something that took place in the middle of the night. Allow the reader experience night without ever using the word “night.”
9. Write about your most memorable experience with food, concentrating on taste and smell and touch.
10. Write about your first experience with death.
11. Describe your first meeting with someone who would later become a close friend.
12. Describe your first meeting with someone who would later become an adversary.
13. Write about a significant event in your childhood from your mother’s/father’/s/guardian’s point of view.
14. Spend an hour in a public place–park, café, bar, etc.–writing about the people who walk by.
15. Write about yourself in the third person (he/she) from the point of view of your boss/an employee.
16. Write about someone whom you observed in a desperate situation.
17. Choose an object of personal significance. Place it in front of you on your writing desk. Write about how the object came into your possession, and about what it means to you. What is your personal history with this object?
18. Tell the story of your life in two pages. Then tell the story of your life in a paragraph.
19. Write about your most carefully guarded secret.
20. Write about what makes you afraid.
21. Write about a time when you believed in yourself.
22. Write about your parents’ courtship. If possible, interview them. If not, reconstruct their courtship from what they or other relatives have told you.
23. Describe a place where something wonderful happened to you.
24. Describe a place where something bad happened to you.
25. Write about your former relationship with someone who is no longer living.
26. Write about a time when your personality changed, when you behaved in a way that was uncharacteristic.
27. Write about the last thing you did by candlelight.
28. List the most influential people in your life.
29. Write about water.
30. Write about someone you see frequently but don’t know well, or at all.

Want more writing prompts? Bookmark this site, or sign up for the Daily Writing Exercise on twitter!

There’s no such thing as writer’s block. Just write through it. Read a book, listen to music, any music, go back to one of your favorite authors. Keep at it until something comes.

Today, I decided to get through it by cleaning. I find a good house-cleaning to be therapeutic. You don’t have to clean the whole house, though; you can just clean your writing space. While cleaning, I listened to a mixed CD my husband made for me, called Big Fun in Alabama. A little Wilco, some Billy Bragg, some Lucinda Williams, the Jayhawks’ beautiful song “All the Right Reasons.”

The Exercise: Put on some good music and clean house. Or clean a room. Or clean your desk. Then sit down for at least twenty minutes, and write.

A decade-long PC user, I bought a Macbook for the express purpose of writing my next novel on Scrivener. I’m glad I did. I do a lot of research for my novels, and I love having my research documents conveniently filed alongside my writing. I also like the wayScrivener adapts to the way I write — non-chronologically, in fragments that I later piece together. I’m now moving along at a brisk pace, enjoying the flexibility and simplicity of Scrivener.

Storymill

Storybook

If your publishing goals are more down-to-earth, however, ebook publishing is a great alternative. Here’s a rundown of three services which allow you to publish your ebook for free and quickly make it available to potential readers, as well as one fee-based but more comprehensive service.

Smashwords: The beauty of Smashwords is that it’s one-stop shopping and, if you follow the guidelines to a tee, your ebooks will be available not only through major retailers, but also through independent bookstores and indiebound. While formatting your book for Smashwords can be a bit tricky, once you’ve successfully uploaded your book, Smashwords makes it available on Google ebooks, Kindle, Nook, Ipad, Kobe, and Sony E-reader. If you’d like to save yourself the hassle of dealing with multiple publishing platforms, Smashwords may be your best bet. Your book will have a dedicated link on the Smashwords website, giving users the opportunity to download it in numerous formats, or even to read it online. (Click here to see an example of a Smashwords landing page.)

With Smashwords, as with other ebook publishing platforms, you set the price and keep a big portion of the profits. Publishers receive 85% of the net sales proceeds for books purchased on the site. Keep in mind, however, that when Smashwords distributes your book to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobe, and other channels, you share the royalties with Smashwords. My biggest complaint with Smashwords, oddly enough, is that the complicated formatting guidelines are only available in an ebook; while free, the ebook is maddeningly difficult to navigate. I hope this is a bug that Mark Coker will fix soon!

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly known as DTP, or Digital Text Publishing): It’s refreshingly easy to publish on Kindle. Simply upload your book as a .doc file to the KDP website, upload your cover image as a .jpeg file, enter a book description and a few key words, name the author, and choose your price. This is a much easier ebook publishing interface than Smashwords, but the downside, of course, is that anything you upload to Kindle is available only on Kindle. You’ll have to publish your book separately to make it available for Nook or other ereaders. Books published on Amazon KDP appear in about 24 hours in Amazon’s extremely popular Kindle Store. Publishers receive 70% royalties on books priced at $2.99 and higher. For books priced below $2.99, publishers receive 35% royalties.

Barnes and Noble Pub-it: This platform allows you to publish on Nook. If you are going to the trouble to publish on Kindle, you should also publish here. Nook has been receiving rave reviews from the tech world, and, anecdotally speaking, everyone I know who owns a Nook is hopelessly devoted. There’s no denying it’s prettier than the Kindle, with its white frame, color graphics, and touch screen capabilities. Publishers receive 65% royalties on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, 40% for books priced below $2.98 or greater than $10.00. Click here to see an example of a Nook product page.

Lulu: Long before ebooks became the belle of the ball, Lulu was helping people self-publish books the old-fashioned way: in print. Not surprisingly, Lulu now offers ebook publishing services as well. With a cleaner interface than the rest, Lulu is easy on the eyes. Its simple 3-step process gives the competition a run for its money, although Lulu is pricey in comparison (Amazon and Barnes & Noble are free). An added bonus is the fact that Lulu ebooks can be quickly made available on the ibookstore, and let’s face it, anything that begins with the lower-case i is just a little bit cooler.

Click here for more information on ebook publishing.

PhotoShop is another fine option for cover creation if you already have the know-how.

There’s plenty of software out there designed specifically for the ebook publisher. Here are a few:
Ebook cover artist: this is one of my favorites, and not only because the website has a cool superhero graphic. At $29.99, and with a decidedly mod sensibility, this is a fun tool that can really make your covers pop.
Ecover suite elite is a more professional package, perhaps a bit user friendly. If you’re serious about cover design, this might be the package for you.
Ecoversoftware pro
Cover software pro

If, on the other hand, you have more money than patience, you’ll be happy to know the web is teeming with people who would love to create your cover for an often reasonable fee.

Jaebee Creations
Custom Ebook Cover Design
Virtual Graphic Artist
Author Support (from a design standpoint, one of my favorites)
Ebooks by design (not cheap, but they do the whole shebang, from interior to cover design)