So the Harlequin announcement for the From Blurb to Book announcement was last Friday. It was happening for me at 10:00, and I was attending a writer's conference that day, with a pitch session with an editor at St. Martin's at 10:10.
I should've waited to check the announcement, but do you think I did?? Ha! No way. And when I didn't find my name on the list, I'll admit, I was disappointed.
Which is ridiculous really. When you've been rejected as much as I have (which is A LOT), I know better than to be too hopeful, or too optimistic, or too whatever. But still. For some reason, which I still don't know, I really wanted to move on to Stage 3. I still really want to place my books at Harlequin.
Anyway, I wasn't on the list, and I was with my critique partner and friend, and I had a pitch in literally four minutes. It was a tumult of feelings, and I didn't quite know what to do with them. So I hitched on my smile and went to my pitch session. It went well, and she requested the full manuscript. So yay!
And yet, I still struggled for the rest of the day. I had to leave early for my daughter's dance, and I went home uninspired and kind of down. I missed an super-inspirational keynote, and as I was reading the tweets, I was further discouraged that what I apparently needed (inspiring words from someone who's been where I currently am), I hadn't gotten.
I got my feedback email from the editors, and it's honestly not bad. The things are fixable. It's just a matter of me doing the work--which honestly, sometimes I don't want to do. I think that's the real problem. I always feel like I'm working, working, working, but never making it to SOLD.
I went back to the conference the next day, and I attended an intensive editing workshop. I got the inspiration I needed! The instructor said things that reminded me that I CAN do hard work, that I CAN edit my writing to make it better, that I CAN move forward after rejection to success.
So that's what I'm going to do.
What have you learned from rejection?
Oh, Liz, I've been there! I have had some rejections that really weren't all that nice. Somethings I learned from rejection are: humility (I was VERY confident in my writing abilities before I submitted...more like arrogant), perseverance, craft (being rejected forced me to study the craft of writing more), and that publishing truly is a subjective business (what ticks all the boxes for one person does nothing for someone else). I still haven't developed a thick skin, though, so I still take rejections hard. I'm glad you got the inspiration you needed to tackle your revisions, and that your pitch still went well despite the bad news.
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