Writing Rejections

Rejection is a part of the publishing business. If you want to become a published author, you’re going to have to deal with rejection. Fact. If you can’t deal with that, then don’t try to become a published author. While I don’t write solely to become a published author, I certainly wouldn’t say no to it if it ever came around. 🙂

I’ve decided I’ve been waiting enough. Right now, I have three manuscripts that I consider ready for submission. How many am I going to have to write before I start submitting widely? To date, my submission process has been half-hearted at best. If I had gone about finding a job the same way I’ve gone about submitting manuscripts for publication, I’d still be unemployed, without a glimmer of a chance of having a job. So I’m now submitting. I’ve sent out Pawn of the Dead to seven agents so far, and I’ve already heard a no back from three of them. That’s okay. I’m going to continue submitting it until I run out of agents who I think would be interested. I’ll do the same with Ichabod and Vodnik. Once I run out of agents, I’ll start submitting to publishers. Once I run out of publishers, I’ll set the book aside for a while and consider revision later. Meanwhile, I’ll continue writing when I’m not submitting.

Why?

Because it’s silly of me to not be doing this. Just as it would have been silly of me to sit back and apply to the same job over and over and over, never getting it. If someone was depressed that they were unemployed, but they’d only applied three places, would you really feel bad for them? I wouldn’t. I’ve submitted five of my manuscripts anywhere. The number of times I’ve submitted things combined is probably less than 20 times. That includes the seven submissions I just sent out this week. In a word: pitiful.

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings.”

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