I had an interview for a job the other day, and one of the interviewers revealed that she had received written a book and had received a rejection letter from a publisher/agent. If I remember correctly she was pretty discouraged over the experience. My response was that I was willing to accept a 100 rejections before I realized everyone was wrong and I needed to self publish. 🙂
J. K. Rowling also experienced rejection. Her first book was submitted to twelve publishing houses, all of which rejected the manuscript.[43]
What is your tolerance for rejection? How many times can you be told your work is no good? And will you still give up?
Whats been your experience?
Your a better man than me if your willing to wait for 100 rejections before self publishing…for my Roadkill story it took me only 6 rejections to final decide to try and epublish it….I think the printed press is starting to see epublishing as thing that is not going away.. For some of the seminars I’ve heard by other authors SOME of the publishing houses are understanding in self publishiing of your own books and with some not actually deeming it as a First Print run as long as you retained sole rights to the publication of it…its kind of mucky water when it comes to that so investigate fully. For me I see my epublished work as stepping stone to my next piece of work I wish to showcase. Most agents will take you on if they see you as a viable commodity to them. They don’t want to waste your time and they sure the hell don’t want you to waste theres….. So I’m going with hitting on all fronts… small publishers,blogging, accredited good contests, epublishing….and see what magic strikes. .good luck yourself
Well again i think the issue is again, how much rejection can you take. You don’t need a hundred publishers. You just need one. And what is the rejection saying? Does it mean that your work wont sell? Or does it mean that its simply not right for that agent/publisher. C.S. Lewis received over 800 rejections before he sold a single piece of writing. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times. Louis L’Amour was rejected over 200 times before he sold any of his writing.
The point is that rejection should be expected. It doesn’t mean that there is not an agent or publisher who wont represent you. And yes we all have our limits. 800 rejections (not me…lol) But our writing doesn’t have to be for everyone. But it definitely is for somebody. Use all of your resources to promote your work I say. But I refuse to let rejection by a few be the standard by which I evaluate my own work. I figure if you have a good story people will be interested in reading it. In this day of self publishing. Publishing a book is actually pretty easy (I’ve done it.) its marketing the book to bring attention to ones work that I see is the challenge.
Good luck to us both!