Rejection

One thing I learned, first from research, and now from experience, is that writers get a lot of rejections. Of their work. I'm trying to remember that. It's my work that they don't want, it's not me. And actually, they're not really rejecting my work. They're just saying that they don't want to read more of it. (I know, it may be splitting hairs, but it still makes me feel better).

Here's how it works: You write a query letter, which is about 250 words that should attract an agent or publisher to your book. Based on that 250 words (assuming they read the whole letter), they make a decision. No one claims that the process is objective. Just the opposite, it's completely subjective. If the agent likes post-modern crime novels featuring dragons and talking cats, then you either provide that, or they reject you. Even if you do provide that, they may still reject you.

The rejections, if when you get one many, are form letters. Really nice, kind, and encouraging form letters. Actually, "letter" is too strong a word. It's more of a note, or maybe a sentence. And it means nothing, absolutely nothing, except, "No thanks." There's no feedback about your actual work. It just means they won't ask for "pages."

Pages means that an agent invites you to send a portion of your book, She reads a little, then decides if she wants more pages to read. If she's bored, she says, "No thanks." Then you send more queries. (And guess what? Even if you find an agent to represent you, you have to go through the whole process again with a publisher. See why I'm still a working consultant? The road to publishing is paved with boulders the size of Mt. Rushmore.)

(It would be better if they just put NO in the subject line of the email and let it go. That would save everyone time. I'm not being bitter, just practical. Literati In The Know say not to give up until you've sent at least a hundred queries for a book. And someone has to read each query. Since the rejections don't really say anything, just keep them simple and streamlined. No.)

Anyway, it's important to stay positive during this gut-wrenching, heart-tearing, blood-boiling, kick-in-the-teeth dance of nix, pass, rebuff, turndown, brush-off, veto, renunciation. Oops, there I go again.

Hence my word cloud. It's pretty, and the biggest words acknowledge that I do work, and they thank me for the effort. (I wish that "Best" denoted agents' assessment of my work, but that's just how most of them sign their responses.)

I like the look and feel of my rejection word cloud, and we'll see how it changes after a few more weeks.