On rejection
I almost went postal on some girl in my creative writing class the other day.
I shouldn't refer to her as, "some girl"; she's a friend. We eat lunch together. We check out each other's shoes. We fantasize about taking that literary tour of Greece this summer.
So it came as something of a shock when, for a split second, I wanted to slap her.
"The literary magazine didn't accept my poem," she said accusingly. "I was trying to be more confident, and do things that scared me, and then they didn't even accept my writing. They crushed my self-esteem"
Flashback: Sobbing in my dorm room because an agent lovedlovedloved my character's voice, but the story wasn't what she was looking for.
"There probably wasn't enough room," the professor suggested.
"Well, they should make room."
Flashback: "I really loved this book; unfortunately, we have several other dystopian novels coming out in the next year and we didn't feel that this one is different enough to stand out on our list..."
"They get hundreds and hundreds of submissions," the professor said. "They can't make the magazine longer just to accommodate one submission."
The rest of the conversation is a little fuzzy, because my brain was reading and re-reading the dozens of rejection letters in my inbox.
Here's the thing: I don't talk about rejection a lot, because 1.) it sounds like whining, and 2.) I feel like I've been very very lucky.
But because this conversation PISSED ME OFF, today I'm going to talk about rejection.
There are approximately one hundred rejection letters tucked away in a folder in my inbox. This means there are one hundred people who didn't like my book, or they liked about forty pages of my book but they thought the last half of it sucked, or they liked the premise but not the execution, or they actually liked it a lot but they didn't have room on their list for me. This means that there are one hundred editors and agents who essentially told me that I am not good enough.
Did these rejection letters upset me? Sure, some of them. Some of them completely devastated me. Some of them made me cry and scream and vow never to write again.
But you know what? I didn't quit. Because I love writing and I love this industry and I can't think of anything else I want to do with my life.
And I still believe that I am very, very lucky. Because one hundred rejection letters is NOTHING.
Cindy Pon sent 109 queries for her debut novel before getting an offer from an agent. She is now the author of SILVER PHOENIX (HarperTeen) and FURY OF THE PHOENIX (Greenwillow Books).
Mandy Hubbard revised and rewrote her debut PRADA AND PREJUDICE (Razorbill/Penguin) nine times before it sold at auction. She is now the author of seven books and she is also a successful agent with D4EO Literary. A quote on her blog reads, "A published author is an amateur who didn't quit. Don't quit."
There are thousands of other stories like these. Success in spite of rejection. Perseverance in the midst of hopelessness.
And this is why that chick in my creative writing class pissed me off. Because ONE REJECTION LETTER is not enough to seal your fate as a failed author. ONE REJECTION LETTER should never crush your self-esteem. Yes, form rejections suck. Yes, I know that you really, really wanted that agent. Yes, I "had a feeling" about that editor too. I sympathize. Really. I do.
But if you can't deal with rejection, you are in the wrong business.
You're going to get rejected.
You're going to be told that your characters are weak, your plot needs to be simplified, your world-building needs work, your writing is sloppy, you need to cut the prologue, your dream sequence is stupid. You're going to be told that you're a great writer but there's just not a market for your book right now. You're going to be told heartbreaking things - and then you will have to decide whether or not you will keep pressing on anyway.