Yes, you read the title right.
Ninety-six rejections. On the same manuscript. In the span of one year.
Some of the rejections were from publishers,
but the majority were from agents who clearly thought the work I produced was
unsalable. There were several requests for full manuscripts, synopses,
partials, bios, more chapters. If they asked to see it, I sent it out. Over and
over and over again.
We’ve all read articles about
surviving the query process, and taken to heart the platitudes that are
supposed to keep us sane, and keep us going. Throw the query net wide and deep. Be patient. Don’t get discouraged. Believe in yourself. Cream rises to the top.
But what
if it doesn’t? I kept asking myself. What if I’m sending out manuscripts five years
from now, and the rejection numbers stay the same? What if cream doesn’t rise
to the top? And then a small voice deep inside my soul whispered, But what if it does?
The query process can be
heartbreaking. Especially those close, close calls. I’ve been writing for over
twenty years, with lots of stops and starts when life got in the way. But
during the last ten years, I’ve really hunkered down and worked hard to get
published. In the course of my writing life, I’ve experienced the incredible
and the horrible. I’ve won and placed in numerous contests. I’ve had
goodhearted agents (and publishers) write gems of encouragement across the
bottom of their rejection letters. I’ve had agents ask for the full manuscript,
keep it for three months, then reject me with a form letter. Once, on a
previous manuscript, a respected publisher asked for revisions, then held on to
the revised version for thirteen months and rejected me with a form letter.
(Gotta love those form letters!) I’ve also had an agent call me on the phone to
tell me she loved my book and would really like to represent me (My heart
stopped!), if only she had room for another author in her stable. Well, the
list goes on.
I remember reading an interview
with a well-known multi-published author who was bemoaning the fact that she
had sent her first manuscript to five
different agents before she secured representation. Five agents. Wow, I thought, shaking my head. How in the world did she ever cope with that kind of rejection? Sarcasm aside, it
all boils down to this: Everyone has their own path to follow. Some are rocky;
some are smooth. Some are short, and some wind through the forest and back out
again until nightfall. But if you give up and sit by the side of the road
fanning yourself, because it’s just too damned hard to keep going, you will
never reach your goal.
There were times when I pulled
back and regrouped. Times when I had to face the cold, hard truth that the
manuscript I had been rewriting for over a year would never work, and find the
courage to move on to something new. I’ve pulled my hair out by the handful in
frustration. But I never gave up. I kept going and going and going. Just like
that old Energizer Bunny. And a few days ago, I stood and wept as I held a copy
of my first book, A Dance to Die For,
in my hands.
So, whoever you are, and whatever
you write, just keep flinging those finished manuscripts out into the world,
and sooner or later, one will land on the desk of someone who “gets” you and loves your work. But until that happens,
you have to keep on trying. Because you can’t win the lottery if you don’t get
in the car, drive to the store, and buy a ticket. Or two.
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| Rebecca Lee Smith |
Guest post by Rebecca Lee Smith.
