Rejection: Part 1

Anyone who writes knows that rejection is as natural to the pursuit of  publication just as the night follows the day. Rejection is like death: it happens to all of us. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of any story or anecdote about any writer who has never received a rejection of some kind.

But the question is how to deal with it. The last manuscript that I sent out made the rounds to both American and Irish agents and all I got for my trouble was a staggering 44 rejections.  That is enough to make anyone lose the will to live. After awhile, once I came to terms with the mere volume of the rejections, I made peace with it and put that manuscipt in a drawer to join two sisters. Then I moved onto my next project. That either renders me a fool or just plain persistent. I hope that it’s the latter.

It is difficult not to take rejection personally, especially after you have poured your heart and soul into writing your novel. To get a stinging rejection or worse — a mass mailing form letter — is akin to someone insulting your child. It does not go down well.

If you have exhausted every avenue with your manuscript, i.e., it’s been rewritten ad nauseam; it has been critiqued by everyone from your high school English teacher to the members of your writing group to the local plumber then perhaps it is time to cut the cord and move onto your next project.

You can not think of it as a waste of time. You have to look at it as a learning experience. If you can look back, you will realize that while you worked on that novel, you learned and you grew and you are not the same writer that you were when you first started it.