I feel like a veritable veteran of writing these days. I’ve been writing for 30+ years and published for more than 20.

It’s been an extremely tumultuous few weeks and I guess it’s all been too much for my immune system and I’m down with a nasty cold. But I thought I should get down my thoughts as they might be of use to someone–you never know.

It’s very interesting how the concept of loyalty plays out in this field. When I first began authors were encouraged to be loyal to one publisher. We were told that it makes ordering our titles much easier, plus if a publisher feels invested in you, then they will show you preferential treatment in terms of working towards developing your career.

That idea of loyalty might very well have become extinct with the dinosaurs. Loyalty to a publisher does not necessarily mean the sentiment will be reciprocated.

Publishing is a business after all, and there are always new and upcoming authors.

What has happened is that publishers are often more willing to take a chance on a new face than invest in someone who’s established a track record. Publishers are always looking for the breakout success. The mega bestseller, and they seem to feel that’s more likely with someone new than someone who’s been around a while and has been developing their craft.

Ever since the economic crash of 2008, it’s been a publisher’s market. Even established authors are finding it hard to get their work published because publishers would rather take their chances on someone new.

It’s like they look at you and think you’ve come as far as you can.

I’m not complaining. One thing I’ve come to realize is that sometimes you need this type of competition to spur you on to greater effort. My motto is ‘rejection is part of the process’. You need to get rejected in order to spur you to greater heights!

There’s been a blossoming of Muslim authors and talent! Almost every major publisher has taken on a new Muslim author and it thrills me that such diversity is in the works. Gone is the idea that the Muslim community is a monolith. We now have books that show Muslims come in all shapes, hues, sexualities and sizes!

It all started with Salaam Reads at Simon & Schuster and other publishers quickly jumped on board.

How many of the new Muslim authors will be able to make a career out of it is another matter.

Social media is awash with their tweets promoting their books and urging their followers to pre-order all in the desperate hopes of creating some sort of momentum for their precarious careers.

Just observing it all is exhausting!

I’m old enough to remember door to door salesmen. I remember a vacuum cleaner salesmen knocking on my parents’ door and eventually selling them a vacuum that had the body shape of a mouse. As well as an encyclopedia salesman who sold them a set of encyclopedias that looked good but largely went unread. New authors have basically become their publishers’ ‘door to door’ sales force.

Hawking their books like vendors at a flea market, they each try to yell louder than the other, all for a dwindling pool of avid readers.

The publishers take their chance on their new authors, hoping for a breakout book, and watch them go out and build a social media platform that effectively helps promote their publishing brand all in the hopes of capturing a share of a diminishing market.

People are not reading as much as they used to. There are more and more authors and it seems fewer and fewer opportunities.

It really is to the publishers’ advantage. They have the power. There is a plethora of authors trying to get published, the new and upcoming along with those who are established, and they can pick and choose.

So there is no loyalty.

This is where my faith comes in handy. I really do believe that whatever is meant for me will come to me, my providence is already set, I only have to make the effort to go out and earn it.

And when setbacks occur, as they must, I look for new avenues.

I remember when I was kicked out of a writing class I had paid to join. Although very painful at the time, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.

I would have started writing to please that group, not realizing that these were not ‘my people’. These were not the people who ‘get me’. And I had to think bigger.

Recently I suffered another setback of the sort.

Like the writing class incident, I had been loyal to an entity that didn’t really get me. Many people had told me to move on. Finally things came to a head and I realized that yes, indeed, I needed to move on. Find other people who do get me. Was it loyalty or lethargy? Perhaps the latter. I was too comfortable in the routine to let it go easily, even though it had long since stopped serving my interests.

I look at all these new authors just beginning the journey as writers and I wish I could advise them, give them the benefit of my experience.

At the beginning, you need to cultivate your craft, figure out how to package your story in a way that appeals to mainstream readers but eventually, when you get good at that, you have to cultivate what you’re trying to say, because eventually you can’t just repackage old tropes and story lines with Muslim characters and think that will do any good. That’s just imitation.

We don’t need a Muslim Harry Potter.

We need to be brave and original.

And that takes courage.

And when you’re truly brave and original you risk a LOT of rejection. Be prepared for that. It’s scary to let go and venture out on your own trying to find people who get what you’re trying to do. But eventually it’s worth it.

And always remember rejection can be a good thing.

Rejection is part of the process.