Yay! Rejected! Again!

photo by @jontyson

I was talking to a friend of mine a while back and mentioned that I had received my first agent rejection letter (actually an email) for my novel. As you would expect of a good friend, she offered her condolences and went on about how that must suck etc.

I replied, that I was actually very happy to get a rejection. She seemed surprised by this. I said it is because I actually have something to reject.

How wonderful is that?

I have actually written a complete novel, beginning to end, with characters who do things and learn stuff and grow, there is a plot, and sentences filled with all sorts of words (120,000+ of them). It took three and half years of struggle and frustration intermixed with brief flashes of muse-induced inspiration. Good or bad, pretty or ugly, best-seller or garbage, I had a novel that could be rejected.

Step one of my get rich quick scheme was complete. (Step Two: book becomes published best-seller. Step Three: book is made into wildly popular Netflix series.)

So, now I’m on my twelfth rejection. And yes, maybe it is a little harder to maintain enthusiasm for all the no’s, when they arrive in my inbox. They are almost universal in form: short statements, vague but pleasantly supportive. Something along the lines of, “I’m not the right agent for this work, but keep trying…”

I tell myself I won’t get disheartened until I have 50 rejections. As they say, Every “no” is one more closer to “yes”.