As I discussed in my last entry, I recently finished my second novel, the first one that I have attempted to market.  In short, my book is about a girl who is kidnapped and forced to train as a space pirate.  It is obviously science fiction, but it also has many characteristics of horror.  This has made marketing the book somewhat more difficult, as very few agents discuss their interest in seeing a sci-fi/horror novel.  I have attempted to read between the lines and hope that if an agent wants both sci-fi and horror, then they wouldn’t be opposed to a hybrid.  Is that truly the case?  The only way to know for sure is to query and see.

 

This, of course, brings me to my next topic: Rejection.  In marketing any piece of creative work, the artist must certainly deal with rejection at one time or another.  I’ve dealt with it countless times while marketing short fiction, and it has begun to rear its ugly head once again as I market my new novel. 

 

Every rejection letter strikes me somewhat differently, even those that are written in similar fashion.  The most common rejection letter is the form rejection.  Form rejections are tell you nothing specific, usually offering faint words of encouragement along with vague descriptions as to why the agent may have passed.  Writers dislike form rejections because they feel dry and impersonal.  They imply that the editor may not have finished reading your query letter.  If I’m in an especially self-defeating mood, I look at a form rejection and wonder if I should have written my novel at all.  It recalls that old saying about a tree falling in the woods.  If nobody reads my novel, was it even written?

 

Personalized letters are theoretically the best, often pointing out what you did right and why your work garnered strong consideration.  While this is all very encouraging stuff, it feels a bit like losing the Super Bowl.  Failure is always worse when it lands closely to success.

 

Lastly, there are the blatantly mean rejections.  I’ve never received one of these myself, but I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about rejection letters meant not only to reject the work, but the author as well.  These are the letters that tell you to give up, or otherwise personally insult you.  As intelligent human beings, we know that it is best to ignore this kind of “advice,” but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.  Discouraging words tend to ring much louder than encouraging ones, which is why it’s important to have a strong support network that will weather the storm with you.  I imagine that if I were to receive such a letter, it would take me days to start writing again.  I’m sensitive that way. 

 

But you know what?  That’s okay.  It’s okay because eventually I would start writing again and I would have one more experience out of the way.  I would have one more story to share. 

 

Rejection letters hurt, but in all honesty, they probably shouldn’t.  A rejection letter simply doesn’t mean that much.  When you walk down the aisle at the grocery store and select Captain Crunch, does this mean that you hate all the other cereals?  Are you consciously rejecting them?  Sure, Cheerios might have better nutrition content, or maybe tomorrow you’ll want something with a chocolaty center, but today you’re in the mood for Captain Crunch. 

 

The same can be said for an agent.  They sift through a lot of material, dedicating more than ninety percent of their work to something other than reviewing query letters.  They don’t have time to carefully read ingredient lists and nutrition information.  Either the work will instantly pop out at them, or it won’t.  Referrals and substantial writing credits help their decisions too, but you can write the best novel in the world and expect to see a nice handful of rejections. 

 

For all of these reasons, it is important to keep writing and submitting.  In the various writing forums that I’ve participated in over the years, I’ve seen a lot of folks spend their time complaining about agents and forming opinions about how those agents should behave and react to writers.  I believe delving into such negativity only hurts the writer.   

More than 99% of the time, rejections are nothing personal.  As writers, one of the best things we can do is learn how to accept rejection with grace, and how to bounce back with renewed enthusiam.