Rejection

Nobody likes rejection. Being rejected hurts, but writers had better get used to rejection or they won't ever become published authors. Still, it's hard to hear that the work you slaved over for months isn't good enough. We writers put heart-and-soul into our work, so when a publisher rejects it or an editor changes it, we feel offended. What if, instead of getting our panties in a bunch, we accepted professional criticism as an opportunity to improve our craft?

Two years ago I sent a query letter and synopsis of my novel, UNREVEALED, to a publisher.  I received a very polite letter of rejection, stating that the beginning of my book contained too much back-story which slowed the plot's progression. I could have been devastated--okay, I was a little devastated--but I decided to use the experience as a learning opportunity. I knew I had a good story and interesting characters, so I went back to the drawing board. I removed most of the back-story and submitted my manuscript to another publisher who accepted it.  I was assigned an editor . . . a very good editor.  The first thing she suggested was that I change the tense throughout from present to past tense. After I had spent the better part of a year writing a novel, the last thing I wanted--or had time--to do was rewrite it. I could have given up on the whole project, but I remembered a workshop from which I learned that almost every author can expect a plethora of re-writes before seeing his or her work in print.

Next, my editor indicated places where there were issues with point-of-view.  Sure enough, I hadn't caught the discrepancies. Here we go again--another "read" through the entire manuscript. After the third or fourth revision, I felt like I had experienced a fourteen-hour labor. Now, I was beginning to hate my own book and the characters I had so lovingly created.  However, the end result was a novel about which I felt satisfied . . . until I opened the finished product and immediately found a typo!  Aargh!