Anna M. Aquino

I’ve been in the publishing industry a lot of years. Truthfully if I wasn’t sure what I was doing was what God wanted me to be doing I would have been out the door a long time ago. I love what I do, but the cycle of turndowns, rejections, and finding the right publisher fit gets tedious and old. You can easily find yourself on a spiritual and emotional roller coaster that can wear you out and suck the life out of you if you let it. Truthfully turndowns don’t get to me as much as they used to. Unless it’s a publishing house or a connection I’ve invested a lot of time with, typically I don’t care much anymore. I understand the business is just that a business and the choices aren’t personal. Often it’s just about finding the right fit for the right project, etc. etc. However, yesterday was one of those connections that I had invested a lot of time and effort in. I don’t need to go into specifics but this one hurt. As I found myself slipping into a pity party mode, and running on the...

Last week I got a turndown for an event that I had been waiting to hear about for sometime. Truthfully I’ve been turndowned so much in this industry they don’t usually get to me. But this one did. Without going into details I believe eventually I’ll get to do this event, but for the project this time I can see why it ended in a turndown. I don’t believe it was me, but the project for this event, etc. In a classic me response I came back with boldness. I told them that I would like to be considered for future projects. Then went to my couch in my office and bawled. With the miracle of texts and phone calls my pastors, sister, and friends rallied around me encouraging me. I got back up and started to rejoice for that turndown. After I was done feeling sorry for myself I realized that there are some issues in my life that I need to work on. I had a God encounter as a result. I know it might sound strange, but I’m actually grateful for the turndown now. Don’t get me wrong, I was disappoint...

On Friday, I had some events happen that I thought I'd share. I finished my 14th book! It was a bit of a stretch for me, and it's still in rough draft form, but I finished the draft. I still need to go back and proofread. I'd like to add about another 4,ooo words but I got the draft done. I have about another 6 books roaming in my head right now. I can be a real workaholic if I let myself. Then, about an hour later, I went to check my mailbox. The timing couldn't have been worse. Sitting in my box was a turndown from a publishing house on my 13th book. I had been waiting to hear from them on this since June. (many of you are thinking I thought she had a publisher? I do, for my non-fiction. However I'm believing God for a fiction publisher. Books are published on an individual contract basis...) The turndown was not because these people didn't lik me. It wasn't because they disliked the manuscript. However, it was because the book didn't fit into the spec...