"The Best Revenge is Massive Success"

Soooooo, I've been thinking about starting the querying process over again for quite some time now. I didn't realize why I was doing it, but for a few months now I've continued to put it on hold. Let me share my very legitimate reasons *cough cough* I mean lousy excuses with you.

• Spring, "Well, it's still early in the year. I want to work on this query a little bit more, pass it around, and then see if I'm comfortable enough to send it out."

• Summer, "Nahhh, the summer isn't a good time. Agents are usually in conferences and super busy during this time."

• Now that we're approaching fall, "Eh, there are a lot of holidays coming up--Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and New Years--maybe I'll just wait till January."

Folks, you know what's going to occur if I wait till January? I'll just have another excuse up my sleeve to whip out. That excuse will defer my querying process yet again and my progress will be stagnant.

It took me a while to recognize or rather accept that fear had such a stronghold on my life and writing, but I eventually did. And you know what my butt was doing when I realized I was deferring my own dreams from pure silliness? I got caught up browsing recipes, quotes, exercise tips, jewelry, and hairstyles on Pinterest during my allotted time to write. Shameful, right? Soooo Right!

So I gave myself a stern talking to and I ended up looking up inspirational quotes regarding writers. I just needed some words of wisdom to help me get over the fear of rejection. The last time I queried I thought I was ready but I wasn't. I had many rejections and just a few R&Rs, full requests, and partial requests--in the end I ended up needing to do another major revision. Gah! Like always right? Lol. So then I researched famous authors (gotta love the internet, right?) who were rejected countless times. Here are a few below. And many of them are sooo ironic!

Stephen King's "Carrie" novel was rejected dozens of time. --One publisher's response,"We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell."

Tim Burton's "The Giant Slig." --Walt Disney editor's response, " It may, however, be too derivative of the Seuss works to be marketable--I just don't know. But I definitely enjoyed reading it"

Nicholas Sparks "The Notebook" was rejected 24 times

Alice Walker "The Color Purple" was rejected many times.

J.K Rowling's first Harry Potter novel was rejected by a dozen publishers including Penguin and HarperCollins.

William Faulkner's "Sanctuary" was rejected countless times. One publisher's response, "Good God, I can't publish this!"

 

Rejection is a part of life. No use in trying to avoid. Sooner or later someone will say yes.