Taking Rejection with Grace

And hello there writers and readers alike!

Those of you who know me may have heard of my step forward in the publishing realm earlier this week. After sending out close to 50 queries and receiving a handful of rejections, I got an email asking for more samples. The agent was intrigued.

Now. You can understand my delirious excitement. So I'm dedicating this blog post to rejections-- or further inquiries-- and how to deal with them.

First off: when you have your book or short story, and you've gotten your pile of query letters stacked together and ready to go, be prepared. You are going to be rejected. Probably a lot. There are those lucky few who get accepted on the first go. But believe me-- it's a small number. And it's not necessarily because their work is better than yours, or that yours is worse than average. It's not that they didn't work hard and just lucked out, either. It's a combination. Because knowing the market, knowing your potential agent, knowing your work, and having a realistic view is hard.

The people who get published on their first try are very blessed. It could be they knew exactly what they were looking at and knew exactly how their book filled the niche. But it's more likely that they had a good, strong manuscript, knew their agent's potential tastes, had researched the market and their niche, and then on top of that won the lottery of the agent actually liking it. Because acceptance is such a transitory, opinionated thing. No matter how hard you work, no matter how great your book is, you can do nothing if the agent/publisher doesn't like it. Nothing. You could have the next Lord of the Rings and an agent could still reject it just because it didn't strike their fancy. Actually, if you have the inclination, it's really motivating and hilarious to look up how many rejections some famous authors got. You can do so here and here but I'll sum up as well:

Stephen King was told that his novel "Carrie" would not sell.

William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" was rejected 20 times and described by one particular publisher as an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.

J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" was rejected a dozen times and was only taken on by (then) small publisher Bloomsbury when the CEO's eight year old begged him to print it. (Now she's richer than the queen of England and has an entire theme park dedicated to her Potter-verse...huh...)

Ursula K. LeGuin, whom you've heard me mention before, was rejected initially concerning her award-winning novel "The Left Hand of Darkness".

One publisher told George Orwell that "it is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA".

You can go ahead and laugh at those words.

Frank Herbert's "Dune" was rejected a good 20 times as well.

Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In time" was rejected 26 times.

Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" -- 38 times.

"Chicken Soup for the Soul" --134 rejections.

Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" had so much trouble that she initially self-published it.

Judy Blume was rejected for two years.

And last but not least, certainly, Dick Wimmer received 160+ rejections during 25 years.

...but I digress.

So. Rejections are not uncommon and not the end of the world. It doesn't mean your manuscript is rubbish. Keep trying. But learn from it, and don't get stuck on one thing.

My author mentor told me this summer that after I had finished sending out the latest queries for my high fantasy piece-- a book I've been working on since the 6th grade-- that I should start something utterly new. I'm going to take that advice and do something along the lines of urban fantasy (ish) since that is now the looked-for genre in today's market. I'm going to try my hand at a 19th century comedic retold fairy tale.

So keep writing-- always start new projects. Keep those rejection letters like a proud collection of shrunken heads (what, is that weird?). Don't get discouraged, even if those rejection letters are nasty. Most of the time you'll just get a form letter with no positive or negative suggestions. Every now and then you'll get a zinger.

My most negative rejection letter read something like "your manuscript is nothing like anything we would publish". Along those lines, in any case.

But my nicest rejection was from this week. Now to my next point. What do you do when an agent asks for more.

Keep calm. Celebrate a little, because if nothing else you've finally gotten confirmation that your story can intrigue someone. There's hope. But understand that an agent or publisher can ask for more of your manuscript and still reject you. So don't get too excited yet. Until you've signed a contract, you're not published. Until you're published, you're not (words of wisdom).

Send them what they want and keep your fingers crossed. In my case I was hopeful but not out-of-my-mind so, because the email that had been sent to me was from an Intern. Warning sign number one. He wasn't a higher-up who could decide from the get-go if he liked it. He needed to get approval elsewhere.

In the end, a few days later, it became apparent the higher-up in question hadn't agreed with the Intern that my work was the right thing for them, and I received the anticipated rejection letter. It was full of praise, though, saying "I congratulate you on creating an imaginative world with interesting characters and sterling action scenes. The sample was an enjoyable read." Oh, well...keep up with comments like those! I was of course disappointed, but not crushed. I had expected something like this. But it is still a step in the right direction, my first positive response to my manuscript. There is hope.

I have to date received 40+ rejection letters. I'm not giving up.

And neither should you. If you get rejection letters, learn from them. If you get further queries, think on them. If you get a contract, rejoice! But all in all, treat publishing less like fairy dust and rainbows and more like the industry it is. This is work. Even if it is the best work in the world, to our eyes, it is still work; we must still represent ourselves as professionals; we still have to deal with all the industry warts.

Perhaps if you give it a kiss the toad will turn into that prince...