Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Right Place at the Right Time


By Darvell Hunt

My daughter went to the Hanna Montana concert last week. She was very pleased about that. Her brothers and sisters, on the other hand, were not; they were quite jealous.

I didn’t pay $200 to a scalper for her ticket. I didn’t pay anything. She just happened to be friends with a girl whose mother was entering all sorts of contests to win free tickets. After all was said and done, her friend and her friend’s mother ended up with too many tickets.

You may have heard of the proverb: “Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness.” That’s what happened to my daughter.

I honestly believe that sometimes becoming published boils down to having the right manuscript in the hands of a publisher at the right time. Or, as the above phrase seems to imply, luck.

What does this mean to a writer? It’s simple: write a lot of good stuff and submit it often. The more you have out there in the hands of publishers, the greater chance your luck will hit (a.k.a. opportunity meets your preparedness).

3 comments:

Tristi Pinkston said...

This is a great reminder to not give up! I've heard lots of people say that they submitted something, but it got rejected so they didn't try again. You've got to keep trying. Otherwise you'll never succeed.

Keith N Fisher said...

Lucky guy. I would've loved to get tickets for my daughter. I would be a hero. Great point about the luck of the draw. I sometimes read popular authors and wonder how they got published. I'm sure that more often than not, it is being in the right place at the right time with the right story.

Darvell Hunt said...

I think it's funny, in a non-funny sort of way, when published authors tell you that it's not hard to get published. Either they are much better than me or they were very lucky. Maybe both. LOL.