Recently, I got my biggest rejection to date. And I’m going to celebrate. Seriously. For real. Pop the champagne and toast my latest ‘no.’
Ok, I should explain, because I am not actually just a glutton for punishment. But I do want to take the time to appreciate how far I’ve gotten, even if I have a long way to go. My agent let me know that one of the major publishing companies read my manuscript. They turned it down, saying it was too young for their audience. And I’m pretty excited for two reasons.
One: a major publisher looked at me work. A year ago, that would not have even been possible. I had to go through all the time and effort (and approximately thirty billon rejections) of getting an agent to even be considered by this publisher. I’m getting consideration by a whole new league! And while this company rejected my novel, my agent has already let me know there are a lot of other publishers on his list.
Two: feedback! I love feedback. I am constantly reaching out to friends/beta readers/random strangers to look at my latest novel/script/grocery list to read it and let me know what they think. And in the past, most of my rejections did not come with any reason. I get it, agents and publishers go through hundreds, thousands, of submissions, so I don’t expect notes, but it’s great to get them. And ‘too young’ isn’t a bad note. It helps clarify where to submit next. Also, it’s way better than ‘this was just an awful disaster and you should set it on fire.’ (I know my writing isn’t awful, but sometimes my inner fears get the better of me.)
So, I’m going to take a moment to celebrate this rejection by thinking about how far I’ve come to be rejected at this level. But then I’ll get back to work. Because I do want to published. I want a publisher to accept my work and someday I want to see a book on a shelf and know that I wrote it. But I’m not going to let one rejection get me down.