Hi, Readers! I was recently at the anniversary party for 88 Cups of Tea, and I met a writer who told me how much my posts here mean to her. She noticed I hadn’t posted in a month, haha called out, and I asked her what she liked the most about my posts. She said, honesty. That really struck me and inspired me. So, here’s another honest one. You'd better learn to forgive yourself. Forgive yourself […]
Tag Archives | Rejection
The Ones That Got Away
Industry Life, Miscellaneous
I divide my email into folders and sub folders to stay organized. I’ve got a folder for Request and within that: Offer, Pass, and…The Ones That Got Away. Agents deal with rejection, too, and in those moments I have to remind myself of the same thing I tell writers: It’s not personal. Authors have a lot to consider when deciding whether or not to accept an offer of representation, and ultimately they need to go […]
Why Rejection on a First Book Can Be a Blessing
Industry Life
Okay, I get it. Writing is hard. And not only is it hard, it’s time-consuming, sometimes all-consuming. You fall in love with your characters, your world, your stakes. You love your work. You believe in your work. So as a querying writer or an agented writer going on submission for the first time, you want more than anything for an agent or editor to see all the things that you love about your work and […]
Moving Beyond Rejection and Into the New Year!
After the… Series, Before the Deal Series, Industry Life, Inspiration, Writing Life
Rejection. We’ve all been there, starting with the threesome of friends that decided to become a twosome without you, or the unrequited love you slathered on that skinny basketball player in sixth grade. Writing is not for the faint of heart. It often feels like the bad days outnumber the good, that the days of utter dejection and rejection will stop the ship from sailing all together. Many days, I feel like the luckiest person […]
A Love Letter to my Rejections
Inspiration, Writing Life
This is something a lot of you know about me already, but I have a lot of rejections. Need proof? Look down. Yes, it looks like a ream of paper, but I swear to commas: those are my rejections. From agents. It’s a lot. It looks overwhelming. It looks like I should have just quit. But here’s the thing: I’m grateful for every one of these rejections, because they were right: I wasn’t ready. Not writing wise, […]