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HEY, writer. Yes, you. The one trying to figure out why you put yourself through rejection after rejection. This thread is for you.
Did you know @StephenKing put his debut novel (Carrie) LITERALLY into the garbage can? His wife fished it out and told him to keep writing. We don't print our novels much anymore, but I definitely wanted to throw my laptop out the window a time or seventeen. Rejection sucks.
You know how I know it sucks? My first agented novel was rejected everywhere. Editors told me the three main characters were
-Too similar
-Too different
-Too old
-Too young.
They weren't wrong. They each articulated in different ways that the characters didn't work.
-Too similar
-Too different
-Too old
-Too young.
They weren't wrong. They each articulated in different ways that the characters didn't work.
My next novel was rejected over and over. I kept getting revision requests and then rejected again. After 22 passes, I rewrote it from scratch. This is where I credit @ZoeFishman76, my agent at the time. I don't even know how many times she read that novel, but it was A LOT.
Every day, I'd write a few more new pages, on the train to and from work and at my lunch breaks. My daughter was 1, so I basically crammed in writing and revising anywhere it would fit. We ended up getting offers from both Harlequin Teen (new at the time!) and Penguin.
The thing about publishing is it's impossible to have tunnel vision & focus on your own career. You can get a book deal but you can't NOT notice someone else's big six figure deal. You can get a positive review but then someone else gets a starred one.
… You can get a film option, but someone else is standing on the red carpet at a big, theatrical premiere. You will drive yourself INSANE if you try to compare your career to someone else's career-- or, rather, the version they show on twitter.
Because here's the reality: almost every author feels like you. They feel like they're never going to get that big break. Their debut fizzled, or the starred review didn't influence sales, or that big movie flopped, by Hollywood standards. What matters is the books we write.
Trying to break into this industry is like there's a big door you're knocking on, and you can hear something on the other side and yet NO ONE will answer. Because that's how it feels-- like you're being left out and desperate for someone to let you in.
It took switching to "this" side of the desk to realize that the people on the other side are just as desperate-- they WANT to let you in. They WANT to find those special stories the readers NEED in their lives, and champion them. Just like my agent did for me.
Those early drafts of my debut, that got rejected everywhere? They weren't good enough. I had to grow as an author to be ready. It did NOT mean I wasn't "good enough" to be published. It only meant I could be better than I was.
I remember believing that once you sell your first novel, you've "made it," that it meant you knew how to write, and just about everything would sell after that. But almost every author I debuted with in 2009 has written novels that didn't sell since they debuted. Including me.
Rejection doesn't make the highlight reel on twitter. You rant with your friends and you bum out and then you sit down the next day and write some more, because at the end of the day, this is the legacy we'll leave behind.
I think for me, being a writer will be forever entwined with being an agent. It's personal. It's important. It's frustrating as hell. And in the end, it's worth it. So keep going. Keep submitting and writing and finding a way to say F*CK the rejections.
… because that ONE letter from a kid who was struggling with friendship, the teen who was mired in grief, or the woman who was tempted to return to her abusive spouse until she found your novel? MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT.
ALSO, if you wrote a "fun" novel, a "beach read," don't think your work isn't just as important. Several of my novels were paperback originals and I struggled with whether my books mattered. But guess what? Sometimes people NEED that escape.
I received an email from a teen reader telling me she always hated reading and only picked my book at the school library because she HAD to, for a book report. She got in trouble for staying up late to read it. FUN, escapism books matter just as much as award winners.
Write the book you want to write. It can be a book that helps someone heal, or it can be a book that helps someone survive their crappy school bus ride home, but WRITE IT. And when it's rejected, know you're in good company, and KEEP GOING.
And lastly, just go ahead and print out this gif and hang it over your desk, you might need it sometimes.
