What in the world am I doing writing about rejection right before Christmas? What a downer! But hear me out because not a day goes by where a new writer or a veteran trying something new isn't dealing with or worried about having something they've written get rejected by a publishing house, newspaper, magazine, online site, etc. Writers get told "no" a lot, which can be especially hard during the holidays. I wrote a few quick words on rejection in my new book, Write Like You

Writing my new book, Write Like You Mean It, wasn't as difficult as initially imagined. Finding a publisher who was just as eager to see the finished product – also not too difficult. Promoting my new book and getting it into everyone's hands? Well, that's a bit different. Friends have enjoyed teasing me for becoming that guy who walks around with a box of books on his hip ... a "traveling book salesman" of sorts. And they're not wrong. Without fail, I have them on hand every

When you're a writer, your goal is to get published. I know ... that's not exactly "mindblowing news," is it? That's like saying basketball players have a goal of putting the ball in the net, or a lawyer's goal is to win their first case. Of course, we want to get published. As I said in my book, Write Like You Mean It: Mastering Your Passion For The Written Word, "to write like you mean it also means to write like you mean it to be read." And that's true for any writer – reg