To my discouraged writer friend
I don’t blame you for feeling down – rejection stinks. You’ve worked so
hard on your novel; you love your characters so much, you know it’s better than
some of the trash you’ve seen on the shelves… so why hasn’t anyone published it?
The truth is, I don’t know the answer.
It might be that it’s brilliant, and hasn’t
found the right publisher yet.
It might be that it’s a work you had to
write as part of your writing apprenticeship, and although it’s helped you grow
in your craft, and brought you joy in its creation as well as despair in its
rejection, it is in some way too personally yours for a publisher to risk
investing in.
It may be that you will never know which.
So while you wonder, the choices are:
1)
Give up; take up sky diving or
brain surgery instead. Or, more seriously - take a holiday from writing, refresh yourself and then make your decisions.
2)
Pour every atom of your energy
into having this work published. Some people do this, and it works. Others do
it, and it comes close to destroying them. You need to decide whether doing so will move you forward or stunt your growth.
But this is my preference:
3) Recognise, acknowledge and honour
your legitimate grief for your hopes for this creation.
Meditate, do EFT
tapping, talk it out, exercise it out… whatever works for you.
When you've dealt with it, you'll be able to put the loved work aside, and start a new one. Ideas are
infinite. You’re a writer: you will find more. You’re a human: your love will
grow to accommodate your new story and characters. Like any new relationship,
you need to let go of the old love and throw everything you have into the new
one.
In six months, in a year, in twenty, have another look at your first
love. Maybe the time will be right for it – you’ll dust it off and someone will
leap at it. Maybe you can use the setting and characters in another story. The
worst-case scenario is that it will show you how you’ve grown.
And while you're deciding, don't forget that nearly all of us whom you see as successful have been through this, and still go through it in varying degrees. Sometimes all we can tell ourselves is the mantra: it's never wasted.
Good luck!
Wendy
I never save rejection letters, but this is a pretty rejected looking page from Nim at Sea. 
9 comments:
What lovely, calm encouraging thoughts. Especially the one about starting work on something else - I think so many people get stuck if a book doesn't get published. You have to keep writing.
Thank you, it's good to know you feel the same way
Nice, Wendy. I;'m one of those who tries and tries and then puts it aside to write something else. I went through just about every YA publisher in Australia with my manuscript - some of them two or three times! I put it aside for years and then - amazing! I got it out again and sold it, at the start of last year. Who would have thought? Between this book and the last time I tried I've done about six books and plenty of articles and short stories.
Sue, that's truly inspiring – and the best example anyone could ask for of what I was saying. Thanks so much for sharing.
What a lovely post, Wendy,
My most recent book, Harry's Goldfield Adventure was first rejected twenty years ago. The timing wasn't right and neither was the writing:)
Nice to know someone else had that big a rest too! The Princess and her Panther was rejected by my publisher 20 years before it was reborn in its present format. It can happen...
Gorgeous, Wendy. Thank you.
What can I say Wendy you gave some great advice here and I would hazard a guess and say that most authors have more rejection slips than acceptance slips. Hence the huge surge in self publishing.
Dave
Thanks, Tania, and yes, Dave, rejection letters are a fact of life for most writers, especially when we're starting and haven't built up a relationship with a publisher yet!
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