My Author's Blog

The 'Rejection Blues'

         I saw on another blog, someone talking about a rejection notice they received lately, which reminded me of the email I got from another writing friend that received a rejection notice a couple of days ago on their first novel. While reading the second one, I noticed an almost positive note in the person's writing, oh sure they were down about being rejected, but they also picked up on the positives from it as well, and didn't just put themselves into a 'blue funk' so to speak. My friend on the other hand, sounded as though they needed some major cheering, which I had already attended to as best I could via email.
 
         These two things made me think about the first rejection leter I got. *sigh* Oh that wonderful feeling that I had as I sent out my precious, first novel, the pages all neatly stacked and packed in a protective padded envelope. Giving it to the clerk at the post office(after checking the postage for the tenth time), feeling happy, excited, and sad in a way. I almost felt like I had just sent a child off to their first day at school, and then I went home, and began the long waiting process.
 
         I waited the prescribed time that had been set out in that publisher's guidelines(I admit I got nervous after their minimum response time), and then started checking the mail each day, excited and nervous, which grew worse every couple of days. Then at last, one saterday afternoon I was sitting on the porch, whiling away a little time by catching up on some reading, when the Postman came up the front steps. He had been our postman for a couple of years so he knew me by name, and after handing me the day's mail and a few happy comments on the weather, he went on his way.
 
         I riffled through the mail quickly, as had become my habit those last couple of weeks, and then I saw it. There it was, the self addressed envelope that had gone along with my novel. I stared at it for a minute, almost afraid to open it, but then my excitement and curiosity got the best of me and I ripped oven the top of the envelope. There inside was a neat and clean, professional looking, one page, form letter. My heart skipped a beat as I read those words "...does not fit into our current criteria..." and it seemed the sun went behind the clouds and the birds stopped singing. I admit, I was devistated(because for some reason I had deluded myself into thinking that this would be the 'easy part' getting the book excepted and published. For about a day I moped about, depressed, feeling like a failure. Then it hit me, as I was sitting down, watching one of my favorite old Sherlock Holmes movies(which always cheer me up for some reason). I thought for a moment about the reason given for a rejection, it wasn't any critique on my writing, it wasn't any comment on my style or storyline that was in that rejection letter, it was merely a 'this is the kind of thing we are looking for right now'. That and I think the truth that it was only ONE publisher that had said no, and that there were many more out there was finally sinking in.
 
         So remember what I nearly forgot, if/when that rejection note comes in the mail, there are 'many more fish in the sea' so to speak. Remember, Thomas Edison took something like 5000 tries to create the electric light bulb, and when asked about this later on he said that he had not once failed, the project just turned out to be a 5000 step process. So take those rejections, and put them in a scrap book or something, because that's one step down, and maybe the most important step of all...you took the chance!
 
 
Until later, Happy Writing!
 
RD Williams, author of 'The Lost Gate'
http://www.authorsden.com/robertdwilliams1