I am Marybeth Smith

Bear with me here….

I was reading Rachelle Gardner’s post today about not necessarily needing to be “Hot” to sell. Yesterday she talked about how the “Hot” stuff DOES move quicker but then today mentioned that sometimes even the manuscripts that sit on her desk for months at a time can end up being really great books. All this got me thinking …about high school…being a teenager… and dating… even though I was TOO young to understand it.

We become a teenager and suddenly we are enthralled with the opposite sex. It’s all about who is cute and who is “Hot” and who is NOT. I wanted to be “Hot” stuff. I wanted all the boys to like me and want me. I struggled with trying to figure out what they wanted and trying to become just that. I cut my hair, I grew it out. I was grunge, I was girlie, I was hippie, I was trendy. I spent an absurd amount of time trying to be what was CONSIDERED “Hot” that I never sat back and perfected me. I never focused on who I was and what I wanted. This is almost always the case with teenage dating. We try so hard to impress the opposite sex that we forget who we are.

I spent so much time worrying and obsessing over whether or not I was “Hot” stuff that I didn’t realize I was. I was not one of those lucky girls who woke up a teenager and thought, “Damn I’m hot!” It literally took me almost 6 years to sit back, look in the mirror and say, “Dang, I am kinda cute!” It was at that point that things started to fall into place. The point where I said, “Wait, this is who I am, and I am actually quite attractive.” That was the point where I gained confidence and relaxed about dating, and of course the point where I met my husband. Kinda ironic that it was AFTER high school and adolescence!

I may not have had boys flocking to me right off the bat as I had wanted them too, but when the time was ready, and high school and the awkward phases had passed, I met a man who found me Hotter than “Hot”! He saw me for who I was and loved it. He saw my TRUE beauty!

So we can sit back and worry like a bunch of adolescent children about whether or not our book is “Hot”! Or we can sit back and look at it for what it is. That what we have written is what it is. It may not be about “Hot” topics like vampires and Amish romance, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth selling. I think we all need to take a minute to stop worrying and instead take a minute to realize that, “Damn, this really is a great piece of work!’ Then we need to realize  that it just takes the right person to see it for its TRUE beauty!