WIPs and Chains
Today I'm over at Cynthia Eden's blog talking about breaking the romance rules - come on by!
So speaking of whips and chains (!), I got smacked with a couple of painful rejections in the last few weeks. Rejections are a part of writing and, although I just sold my 14th book (to Ellora's Cave! Yay!) I guess they always will be.
I still feel like a relative newbie in this writing biz, only published for about a year and a half, so I don't know if rejections will ever get any easier to deal with. It's hard not to take them personally. Although I am not what I write, I put my heart and soul into every story and it's hard when someone doesn't like it.
I know all the platitudes - it's not personal; the business is subjective and what one person doesn't like, another person will; you have to find the right agent/right editor/right publisher at the right time; your story may be brilliant but it's not what they're looking for at that time, etc. etc.
None of those really make me feel any better.
But there are few things that do make me feel better:
1. Since I've been published, every manuscript that I've had rejected has sold elsewhere.
2. One manuscript that was rejected by one publisher and sold to another went on to get a whole whack of 5 STAR reviews and is one of my best-selling books.
3. One of my manuscripts that was rejected by 50 gazillion agents (okay, slight exaggeration, but not by much) just got a 4 STAR review from RT Book Reviews.
I keep those memories at the back of my mind and when I get a rejection, as I recently did, I pull those thoughts out and think about them pleasurably for a little while, comforted by them. And then I put them back and save them for the next time, because I know there will always be more rejections.
So speaking of whips and chains (!), I got smacked with a couple of painful rejections in the last few weeks. Rejections are a part of writing and, although I just sold my 14th book (to Ellora's Cave! Yay!) I guess they always will be.
I still feel like a relative newbie in this writing biz, only published for about a year and a half, so I don't know if rejections will ever get any easier to deal with. It's hard not to take them personally. Although I am not what I write, I put my heart and soul into every story and it's hard when someone doesn't like it.
I know all the platitudes - it's not personal; the business is subjective and what one person doesn't like, another person will; you have to find the right agent/right editor/right publisher at the right time; your story may be brilliant but it's not what they're looking for at that time, etc. etc.
None of those really make me feel any better.
But there are few things that do make me feel better:
1. Since I've been published, every manuscript that I've had rejected has sold elsewhere.
2. One manuscript that was rejected by one publisher and sold to another went on to get a whole whack of 5 STAR reviews and is one of my best-selling books.
3. One of my manuscripts that was rejected by 50 gazillion agents (okay, slight exaggeration, but not by much) just got a 4 STAR review from RT Book Reviews.
I keep those memories at the back of my mind and when I get a rejection, as I recently did, I pull those thoughts out and think about them pleasurably for a little while, comforted by them. And then I put them back and save them for the next time, because I know there will always be more rejections.