My story didn’t make the cut for the Malice Domestic anthology, which sort of bums me out … but at least they were polite enough to email me and let me know, which is refreshing.

In response, I’ve decided to do a short piece on handling rejection. Here are some good tips:

• DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY – note the capitals. This is the Number One rule of rejection, and one that almost every new writer falls prey to. It’s not about you, but about your story not being right (for whatever reason). Stories can be improved or submitted elsewhere. You, as an author, need to learn to see rejection as a tool for improvement rather than a rejection of yourself.
• Learn from it – If you can, find out why your story was rejected. If there are issues you can correct or improve, then do so, especially if you get similar rejections from more than one editor or publisher. Again, this is another tool to help you learn to be a better writer.
• Change your thinking – If you believe that you “deserve” fame and fortune, or that you’re somehow owed a spot in the limelight, you need to think again. Rejection is the norm, not fame. Most manuscripts are just not suitable for publication – and wouldn’t you rather know (and work on improving) than be treated like a “special snowflake” that deserves to be promoted just for showing up? I’d much rather feel I actually deserved something than to just have it handed out to everybody.
• Talk about it – Rejection hurts. Sure, every author experiences it, but that doesn’t mean you should suck it up and pretend nothing happened. Commiserate with friends and fellow writers. Announce it on your social media platforms. Get the hurt out of the way so you can move on to the improvement part.
• Celebrate your courage – It takes guts to put something you’ve created out there for people to reject. Celebrate that courage and pat yourself on the back for trying. If you never fail, you’re not pushing the envelope. Keep putting yourself out there and keep pushing.

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address.’ Just keep looking for the right address.”

                                                ~ Barbara Kingsolver

 

Just learned that the (small) publishing house I’ve had the anthology with is not picking up the rights for another year, due to poor sales.

 

That smarts, I’ll admit. Even though I was secretly looking forward to the day I could cancel our contract and regain the rights to sell the book, I was thinking I’d be the one doing the canceling. This feels more like rejection.

On the plus side, this publisher is quite small, so they don’t have a good publicity budget (read: none!) and didn’t push the book like a bigger company was. Now, I can try to shop the thing around along with my novel, as in “If you like this, I’ve got an anthology with the same characters that I can regain the rights to….”

So … overall, probably a good thing, even though it’s going to mean the book won’t be in print after April, 2015 unless I can find a new publisher.

Any of you experience anything similar to this? How’d you handle it?

 

 

 

I just learned that DOWN THE OWLHOOT TRAIL didn’t win a Spur Award – that’s the Western Writers of America awards. I’d entered several of the short stories, and I’ll admit to having a real hope of winning one. I also admit to feeling a real sense of loss at the moment, though my logical brain says that there were likely hundreds of entries and I was competing against seasoned authors.

My emotional brain still wants to let out a wail.

It’s hard not disparaging my work at a time like this, too. There’s always a little voice in the back of every writer’s head, saying things like “this is boring” or “you’ll never sell anything with writing like this.” That voice is in full swing today, especially as I’m working on a short story for an upcoming anthology with Western Fictioneers.

I think the trick is to look at how many authors haven’t won awards – most of my favorite books don’t have an award sticker on the front. Let’s be honest, too, and admit that only a very few works do win awards. There are just too many books and stories out there, and only a finite number of awards for them.

Rejection is hard at any time, but you have to keep your work out there and keep trying. DOWN THE OWLHOOT TRAIL is still in the running for several more awards, so I’m hoping I can get another kudo for the cover.