The Wonder of Rejections....

I have soooooo many rejections. I've kept them. I'm proud of them. They form part of my journey and even though they bloody hurt at the time, each one made me that bit more determined. Rejections drove me further. I was going to be accepted....one day!

I was rejected for my first three books. One I decided to self publish (The Blog of Maisy Malone) and the other two I decided to file away for a bit. My forth, Seven Days, was my eventual success.

But yesterday, about a year after I'd started submitting my novel to agents, I received another rejection. I'd totally forgotten this one was still outstanding. Although it was nice to read this email and know it no longer mattered, the rejection itself still smarted a bit - because lets face it, we all want to be loved. The message itself was simple:

Many thanks for contacting us about your work. Unfortunately we didn't think this was right for the areas on which we focus.

Thank you for thinking of us and we wish you all the best in finding representation elsewhere.

 

And I guess this reminded me of a important lesson in publishing - although I secured an agent and a publishing contract in the end, I was bloody lucky.

 

One mans meat is another mans poison.

 

 You will be rejected. This is normal. This is good if you can use the disappointment to drive you forward. So my advice today is to keep trying.

 

 

And if you get despondent, eat cake - it worked for me.