How to Avoid the Rejection Blues
by Ernest Dempsey
It’s so frustrating.
You’ve worked hard on your book. You’ve spent countless hours writing, re-writing, proofing, editing, and designing.
You know your story is good. Your characters are more than relatable. And from the first page, your readers will be hooked immediately.
Getting an agent and a publisher should be automatic.
Yet all you seem to get are rejections.
Like I said, it’s so frustrating. Actually, it is way beyond that. It’s depressing, infuriating, unfair, numbing, and probably a ton of other things.
I know. I’ve been there. I have fourteen rejections from various agents.
And here’s the good news: there are a lot of other people who have been too. In fact, most authors have been rejected multiple times before finally breaking through.
But how do you keep going? How do you fight through the rejection blues and press on?
There are a couple of ways. Both are going to take a lot of work on your part, but if becoming a published author is what you want in life, you may as well accept it.
Ben Mezrich knows what it’s like to get turned down by the industry. He had amassed over 190 rejection letters from agents and publishers. Mezrich kept them pinned on the wall around his work area in a Boston basement apartment.
Yeah, 190 letters stuck all over the place. They served as a motivator for him.
Most people would look at twenty and think maybe they weren’t good enough. Perhaps writing isn’t their thing after all. Not Mezrich.
He honed his pitches. He kept writing. He researched what worked and what didn’t work when sending materials to agents and publishers.
Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Don’t send out the same pitch a hundred times if that pitch has been rejected by several people. Change it around a little; tweak it.
Maybe you need to change the first line of your story, the first page, or even the first chapter.
Of course, even when you do all that, you are playing to the whims of an industry. Some rejections I’ve seen were as a result of the company not needing my kind of material at that point, which had nothing to do with the quality of my book.
Fortunately, there is another way.
John Grisham self-published his first novel. Despite all the bad press and the stigma that goes with publishing a book independently, he did it anyway.
He drove around with stacks of books in his trunk, selling them to anyone he thought might be interested. And remember, this was back in the days before Amazon or Createspace. It took a lot more work to self-publish back then than it does now.
Grisham knew what he wanted. He wanted to be an author, but been rejected by publishers and agents. So, he took matters into his own hands.
I believe in self-publishing. I think it’s a viable way for many authors to build a readership. And that is really the key to getting things going as a writer.
Many authors have asked me if they should self-publish. I tell them absolutely. One of the big reasons behind that answer is that the book industry is much like the music industry.
I spoke to a record rep from a major record label once and ask him how bands get record deals. He told me that if a band sells 10,000 albums they will get signed on the spot.
Why is that?
Because the band has shown the record company that they can sell albums. You have given them a reason to want you.
Selling books is the same way. I don’t know if there is some magic number where suddenly agents and publishers are banging down your door, but you can imagine there probably would be if you sold 10,000 copies on your own.
Then you have to figure out whether you need them or not…
No matter which way you decide to go, you cannot let a few rejections knock you down. If you have a talent and a love for creating the written word, you are always going to face rejections, bad reviews, naysayers, and trolls.
Just remember why you started writing in the first place. Doing that is probably the most powerful way to avoid the rejection blues.
When you wake up, does it seem like your dreams were real? Maybe they were.
Imagine if Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins sat down together to write an up-tempo, action packed sci-fi thriller featuring terrifying nightmares, an evil emperor, a beautiful princess, and gladtiator games on another planet.
That’s The Dream Rider, the newest release from Ernest Dempsey, the author who brought you The Secret of the Stones and The Cleric’s Vault.
Falling from buildings, being attacked by terrifying strangers, and ghostly hands that strangle in the night are just some of the fears The Dream Rider must overcome.
Finn McClaren is an average college student, mediocre in every possible way, until one day, when strange men try to kill him. Finn wakes up in his dorm room to realize the whole thing was just a dream. Or was it?
The nightmares continue, forcing Finn to face his deepest fears until one night, he stops running and fights back. When he awakens, he is no longer in his dorm room, but on a strange planet on the other side of the galaxy.
After being arrested, Finn is thrust into an underground prison where the inmates are forced to fight to the death in the arena games. While there, he learns he has incredible powers, and of the true reason he has come to the alien world.
The Dream Rider is a fun, fast-paced, science fiction adventure that also asks serious questions about our fears, self-esteem, beliefs, and facing challenges in life.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Science Fiction
Rating – PG13
More details about the author
Connect with Ernest Dempsey on Facebook & Twitter
Website http://ernestdempsey.net/
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