The Writer's Journey - Rejection

Rejection.

Deep sigh.

It's part of the journey for sure. If you don't believe me, look at the two emails in my inbox in the last 24 hours that begin with "Thank you for allowing me the chance to view your manuscript. Unfortunately..."

Of course I knew it was the way of the world in publishing.

It's happened before. It will likely happen again.

In one of the Yahoo loops of which I'm a member, a writer recently said she received a rejection and was going to take the day to be miserable and then get back in there. Another writer in the group, one I admire dearly - Lauren Baratz-Logsted - responded to give nothing more than five minutes of sadness to any rejection.

I think it might take me longer than that to write this blog (which I'm offering as a sacrifice to the rejection gods in hopes they might be satisfied and leave me alone for a bit).

I've heard several writers and agents refer to an agent-author relationship as a marriage. If that's the case, I suppose I'm in the phase where I'm still looking for "the one." Now, I know what my unmarried friends are frustrated about!

If shopping around my manuscript to agents is parallel to premarital dating, then I'm in essence standing on the top of a building alongside I-95, completely naked, asking someone to take a chance on me.

Maybe not exactly.

And maybe that's not an image you anticipated when you started reading this post. My apologies.

As the rejections pile up, I'm holding onto hope. There are still several other agents reviewing my work right now. That said, if they all come back with "Thanks, but..." responses, I'm hoping my five minutes of depression goes slowly.

Heck, in five minutes, you can barely drink a glass of wine, let alone an entire bottle!

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.” - Barbara Kingsolver