Rejection Paradise

September has arrived at last! So begins the pumpkin spice lattes, football parties, school, and oh, yeah, editing from hell.

August in Iowa focuses on the Iowa State Fair. If you’ve never been, you should. Just so we can add to the millions of visitors. Honestly, I don’t understand the appeal of wall-to-wall strangers, extremely obese animals, sunburn, and deep fat fried food. That being said, the fried Oreo’s are AMAZING!

Now, as I start a new month, I hope it’s better than the last few. Publisher wise. I’ve been trying to get one of my books under a different pseudonym published, but so far all I have is rejection. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting a home run. Ok, I lied. I totally was. Surprisingly enough, I’ve had more responses from publishers than I have for my Skye submissions. I find that intriguing and a little depressing.

As a rule, I retain all of my rejection emails. Why, you might ask? So that when I’m a big time author, I can provide a little hope for the other writers out there that want to give up when they receive that ‘Dear John’ email that’s so original I want to puke. I read somewhere that writers need to get a yearly amount of rejections so you get your name out there. The jury’s still out on that.

This week, I’ve received two rejection emails. One from a large publishing house. And holy crap, it was actually an email NOT just an automatic response that says ‘your writing sucks ass’! Between the two personalized emails, I’ve come to see that my MC isn’t ‘likable’ according to them and my timelines are fuzzy. I take their rejections and though they depress me, I learn from them. Point being, yes, my MC is a bitch, but I guess I need to make her a little more like a person if I’m going to draw readers in. To the second, I am currently re-reading and hacking where needed to make sure the times aren’t confusing.

Rejection emails are ok. It means you are getting your work out there and someone is reading it. Take the feedback, but don’t hole yourself away and cry into a Ben & Jerry’s. (Of course, I’ve never done that. That would be ‘likable’.) I realize that while I need to stay true to my writing, I also need to take the criticism too. I’m a perfectionist, so swallowing that pill is super difficult. I don’t want my characters to fall flat, but I also want my story to get across to the readers. This particular story has a LOT of me in it, so that’s why I took the rejections a little hard this time.

I know it’s no fun to get rejected especially when it’s your heart and soul they’re smashing with the key strokes. At the same time, those rejections make or break a writer. You either learn from your mistakes and succeed or you continue to ignore the subtle help the publishers are giving you. Don’t remind me of this euphoria when I receive another email from hell.

My goal is to not have those emails filter through my inbox. I only want the good ones, but taking the good with the bad is all part of the writing process. So, here’s to a fresh month, less rejection emails and more publishing offers 😉

Keep that head high and proud.

~Skye~

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