The Red Badge of Rejection

Before Christmas, I decided it was time to get back in the publication saddle, so I picked myself up, spent some time carefully crafting a new query letter and such, and picked a couple of agents to contact.

As I rather expected, I got an email back recently from one of the two: rejected.

I have lost count of the number of rejection letters I have received like this one. Twenty something? Thirty? I am no longer sure of the count, but each time I get one, I am acutely aware of a few things. 

First, I am always impressed with the kindness and consideration that most agents put into their query letters. While rejection is never fun, I appreciate the fact that most agents craft their own reply letters, which are tactful in telling you no. 

Second, I have come to expect the rejection. I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing, so perhaps it's a little of both. After all, low expectations make the end result a little softer, and whenever the yes finally comes along, it will be all that much sweeter for the sheer surprise of it! 

Third, I am reminded that the struggle is real, and that I am just one of many people pursing this dream. The only difference between me and anyone else is how long I am willing to keep after it. When I really feel frustrated with the fact that I am not a full time writer yet, I remember Kathryn Stockett's story (author of The Help, which is one of my favorite books of all time) of getting published. The only difference between her and everyone else was her willingness to stick with it. 

I am going to stick with it. 

One of my oldest friends from high school once told me (while she was in the throes of attempting to get her first scholarly paper published) that she was just going to start hanging all the rejection letters up on her wall like badges of honor. Those letters, she said, were so much more than simple rejection letters. They were proof that you were working, you were fighting the good fight, you were persisting even when it sucks. 

That's where I am at. Because we email most queries now, I can't pin all the physical letters on the wall (I suppose I could print them out...), so I am posting here on TRL. While I wish that letter above had come to me bearing good news, I am okay with what it is--it comes to me bearing the news that I am a writer.  I am not only writing, I am rewriting, editing, drafting, and submitting, all in the hopes that one day I can pull it all together well enough to be a full time writer. 

So, to all the writers I know out there, who are struggling and writing and wishing and praying and hoping that you might get published someday, take heart. 

You need only to keep after it. Take one more step, try one more time, and never, ever give up.