Learning the Craft: Those Rejection Letters!

How do you let go?

It’s like sending your firstborn to kindergarten. You’ve nurtured and fed your baby for years. You got up early and stayed up late to tend to your baby. You spent so many hours alone in the company of your bairn that you fear letting them go.

Is it safe to put your loved one out into the cold, cruel world? How will they treat your little one? Will they love your creation as much as you do? Or will they belittle and criticize your little one?

Will they even take the time to know your creation? You’ve groomed your baby as well as you can. You’ve dressed them up and followed all the rules. You’ve even waited, delaying the inevitable, repeatedly checking your loved one as often as you can. Still, you hesitated. How can you let go?

Finally, you got the courage and let go, sending your little creation off with a prayer. Now, it is out of your hands. I guess you know that I am not talking about your human child. I am talking about your manuscript.

What to do while you wait?

Now you wait as the hours, days, and weeks pass. You watch for the mailman every day, knowing their schedule better than they do. Before you even have your second sip of coffee, you check your email each morning. Each night you dream about an editor yelling, “Eureka! This is the best book I’ve ever read! Get the contract ready.”

However, as the weeks and months drag by, the nightmares begin. You dream that the manuscript is unread in a wastebasket. Worse yet, you see the editor spilling coffee and using your manuscript to wipe up the spill. Some nights, visions of the editor mocking your work as she shares it with others in her office invades your sleep. Waking up in a sweat, you imagine what it’s like to give up writing.

Then it comes! The letter or email from the publisher. A form letter tells you that they have no place for your baby. Give up? Or repeat? Should you file the manuscript or email it to another publisher? I can only tell you what I learned to do with my rejection letters.

How do you learn from rejection?

First of all, there are kind editors. Some of them will take the time to tell you what is wrong with your work. Don’t get mad. Look at their suggestions and check your work over. Most rejections will come as a form letter. You will never know why it was rejected. Notice I said it was rejected. You were not rejected! So how do you deal with it? I will tell you my system.

I always make a list of likely publishers before I send my manuscripts out. And being who I am and remembering how insecure I am, I do the opposite of what an insecure writer would do. I first send my manuscript to the most prominent publisher, starting with the big houses that publish all the famous, rich authors. There may be four or five top publishers on my list. And I have little hope that they will publish my work, but God’s in charge of that part of my writing. I make my list in this order:

1) Big publishing houses

2) Middle-size publishing houses

3) Small, independent publishers

4) Self-publishing companies.

What’s the next step?

After I email or mail my work, I start that very day writing my next book. The publishing is out of my hands. When I receive that rejection, I send the manuscript to the next one on my list and continue my writing.

I know so many authors who start with self-publishing without even trying to find a publisher. I think that is a big mistake. I have no problem with self-publishing. I have done it often. However, it is cheaper to find a traditional publisher, and they have more access to distribution than I do.

Can you turn it over to God?

This is a business, and once I send it my manuscript out, it is up to God. Not taking the steps of faith to do my part is shortchanging what God can do. When I gave up fear, it left an empty spot in me. God hates a void and filled that void with courage. He always replaces a defect with a virtue. I am too busy writing my next book to pine away about rejections. I make it a habit of sending out a rejected manuscript to another publisher on the day I received the rejection. I don’t let fear or depression swim around in my insecurities.

When my book is published, I take another step of faith. One a month, I send my book out for what I call a “shot in the dark.” I mail it to Oprah, book clubs, and TV shows that highlight books. I take a chance and send books to other famous self-identified Catholic or Christian reporters. I send books to radio and television personalities. This has yielded me some radio interviews!

The point is faith, not fear. So the next time that rejection comes, have a plan that keeps your baby out there and keeps your success in God’s hands.

Karen Boyce

Karen Kelly Boyce lives on a farm in N.J. with her retired husband. She is a mother and grandmother. She is the author of “The Sisters of the Last Straw” series published by Tan Books. You can see her work and learn more about her on her website: www,kkboyce.com