Hello, Writers, happy Monday!
Today, I'm talking about rejection.
UGH, you have sent in your manuscript or query letter, and this time you did everything right.
You took a class on writing the perfect query, you had your first pages reviewed, you sent to beta readers and STILL---the phone pings, you know you have an email, you go to it to see that big NO staring you in the face.
Once again, you have been REJECTED!
UGH--it's part of the life of a writer, but it's still the worst!
That said, it happens to ALL OF US. Every writer has been rejected.
Every person has been rejected. Remember your first crush who didn't like you back? Rejection. Remember trying out for soccer even though you aren't athletic? Rejected. Remember sending out those college applications and getting the skinny envelope in the mail?
Rejection sucks and there is no other way to say it but you have a choice, you learn how to use it to your advantage and learn from it or you let it defeat you.
If you are still reading this, I know that you aren't going to let rejection get you down.
I have a video on my YouTube channel from the spring on why specifically rejections happen. PLEASE WATCH IT HERE
But in this blog, I'm going to talk a little about the psychology that happens to all of us when we get rejected.
First, we go through the emotions. You may feel angry or defensive or you may feel like you will never make it and despair sets in. Rarely in the history of the world does someone get rejected and feel happiness.
This is normal. No one likes to be rejected. We automatically assign it to the belief of something must be wrong with me
That simply isn't true.
Your story, your work, your creativity is getting rejected for many reasons and a lot of them have zero to do with you or your work.
BUT let's say it is your work. WHY is this happening?
Some of the reasons that we get rejected as writers.
1. We send out work too soon and it's just not ready
2. The story isn't polished
3. The characters aren't real or deep enough to connect to
4. We write a bad query letter (this is very common)
5. We actually do suck and need to learn how to tell stories
6. We mess up the technical stuff like formatting
Okay--feeling bad now? PLEASE DON'T. I'm writing this to let you know that it's all normal and then there are the reasons like this.
1. The market is oversaturating with your genre/story
2. The agent has another client with similar work
3. Barnes and Noble says no (like what did you ever do to them except spend heaps of money in their stores?? UGH)
4. The agent just isn't looking right now for your genre
5. The agent/editor just doesn't like that kind of story
6. The reader was multitasking and didn't give your query a real chance
There are many reasons that have nothing to do with you.
So, please don't despair.
If you are getting rejected at the agent search stage really ask yourself if your work is ready to be sent out and are your story, genre, character(s), clear. Ask yourself why this book? Why this story? Why does it matter?
If you have an agent and your agent can't sell your book, you may need to rewrite your story, so you need to understand the WHY of your story. You need to go back in and dig deeper.
If you are between these two and you are getting requested by all the agents you send to but they are rejecting on the manuscript level, don't despair but take the comments you have heard and feedback and go back and revise again.
You can do it!
Rejection sucks, big time, but it's also a step closer to a yes.
So keep going!
Please sign up for my newsletter here
Let's connect on social media
Yorumlar