It is now official. Rizen – The CD is available in MP3 format. I sent the tracks to www.lulu.com and I should receive the first official copy of the CD in a few days. I do not think I have been so excited in my life!

When I was in grade 8, on the first parent-teacher meeting of the year, my English Teacher told my mother that I was a lost cause when it came to English. He predicted that I would never be able to speak the language well enough to be understood by anyone. The same thing happened when I was at university. One of my professors asked me what I would like to do once I graduate. At the time, my dream was to become a university Professor. She laughed and said: “I hope you are kidding. Your accent is so bad that I highly doubt that anyone would understand you.” I thanked her and just replied: “I do hope we meet again, in a few years.”

Naysayers come in all shapes and colors. I could write a book on them. I have met so many in my life that my whole neighborhood would not be big enough to accomodate them. However, they deserve an award for trying to make me quit. And I have proven them wrong every time…

Here are the naysayers that I have met and who stand out from the crowd.

1) Strangers. It takes them five minutes to predict my fall. They read one poem, and start telling me exactly what I need to do to turn my poetry into a masterpiece. They have all the answers to help me improve my craft. The only problem I have with advice like that is that most of these people have never written one poem in their lives.

2) Experts. They claim that they know everything about the industry they and I belong to. While this may be true of a lot of them, there are still some individuals who should really update their knowledge database.

As most of you know, I self-published my four books of poetry. I chose that path because I wanted to have full control over my creations. A couple of months ago, I emailed reviewers to see if they would accept to have a look at one of my books. One of them sent me the following response:

“Dear Cendrine Marrouat:

Though vanity presses (presses which allow an author to publish his/her own work for a price) sometime publish good and important works, it is very rare. Vanity presses offer no quality control. In short, it’s an issue of quality and credibility. This is no reflection on your work, obviously, but simply a policy this publication practices.

I’d like to direct you to a review venue that might review a self-published book, but I can’t think of one that does.”

An “expert” who does not know the difference between self-publishing and vanity press?  I think that they just wanted to see my reaction. However, I decided not to give it much thought, as it would have been a waste of time and energy. Actually, my book was accepted for review somewhere else a couple of days later and the reviewer was actually kind enough to congratulate me personally.

3) Friends. I have had a few dedicated friends, the kind of people that have always been by my side, no matter what happens. Those do not belong to the naysayers category. The people I am talking about here, are those who claimed that they were my friends and acted otherwise.

Since the beginning of my career as a writer, I have emailed my whole list of friends a few times, to inform them of my achievements. I did the same with my CD. Here are the kind of naysayers I had to deal with.

I have “friends” who lost my email address each time that I sent them a message about either my books or my CD. They miraculously found it again once I stopped emailing them. Others were overwhelmed with my news to the point of no return. They had to grieve for at least a year before sending me a response. Others also felt that they had to tell me the truth: no one cares and what I have been doing is useless. Finally, last but not least, some “friends” thought that I wanted them to become my agents. So, they took the easy way out telling me that they had neither money nor time.

The problem is that I had never asked any of that to anyone. When I contacted my “friends” about my books or my CD, I simply told them to help me spread the word by forwarding my messages or simply talk about me to their friends and family members. It takes a couple of minutes and no money to do so!

Naysayers are everywhere. They hide in every corner, even in the comfort of your own home. The worst naysayer may be yourself! We care so much about what others say that we sometimes forget to listen to our own heart. We deny ourselves a good life and our most basic sense of purpose, for fear others should not accept who we are.

In the end, as bad as naysayers may be, they share our lives for only a short amount of time. We, on the contrary, continue lacerating ourselves long after they have left.

So, I say: Yay, me! for not paying attention to all the people who have tried to warn me that I was wasting my time and energy. I can actually speak English properly, write poetry in a language that is not my mother tongue, and still move people. I authored four books and made a CD. Talk about proving people wrong, eh?

Now, forget the naysayers. They are just jealous. Celebrate all your victories, small or big. They are worth it! And most importantly, never let go of your dreams…