Never let rejection stop you from pursuing your publishing dreams.
Let’s face it. We write because we want to as much as because we have to. If we really detested the business, we’d have given up on it long ago. But why are so many of us hesitant to proclaim what we do for a living?
The short answer is this: criticism.
Writing requires a thick skin. A very thick skin. You have to know how to handle criticism — and how not to take it personally. Every time we send an article or manuscript out into the world, we’re inviting others to judge it. And judge it they do — often brutally.
Currently, I’m working on a somewhat controversial novel that doesn’t fit neatly into any single genre. (And as anyone familiar with the book-writing industry knows, publishers want stories to be easily pigeonholed.)
My novel focuses on a May-December romance, though the age difference between my hero and heroine is greater than people would expect. But I don’t allow its hard-to-categorize nature to keep me from sending it out to agents, and I don’t let those agents’ rejections discourage me. (Well, okay, rejection does discourage me, but not to the point where I’ll ever give up.)
Like all of the great authors I admire, I know someone will publish my book someday. It just has to fall into the right hands at the right time. That certainty is what gives me the courage I need to continue on with my plans, no matter how long the road to success might be.
