Rejection of Authors: Part Two - Taking Things Personally

As painful as rejection is, especially for the beginning writer, it must be stressed that it is nothing personal on the part of the publisher or editor. Writers who take rejection personally have to change their way of thinking if they hope to have a career in the business. Writing can be a solitary and lonely profession and writers tend to live very much inside their own imaginations for long stretches of time, as the plot comes together and the characters form. As a result, they can’t help but be deeply attached to the project. 

Consequently, it’s a little like sending your children off to their first day of school when you mail that manuscript out to the publisher. This is your baby, one that you’ve nurtured until its perfect. How could anyone not like it, right? However, a writer must remember that the rejection by the editor or publishing house is a rejection of the writing, not of the person. If you can accept that, then perhaps you can look at ways to improve the work you sent out, or even abandon it altogether, if you so desire. But if you convince yourself that there is something dreadfully wrong with you as a human being, you might never write again or at least never have the courage to submit anything else, forever fearful of being rejected.

Those reviewing your work at a professional publishing house are doing so in an unbiased manner. Your novel has already been read perhaps by friends, relatives, work colleagues and lots of people who know you. Yet you are never going to get a truly honest opinion until you send your work to someone who isn’t acquainted with you personally. Since the editor has no idea who you are, how can they be judging your work on anything but its own merits? There are lots of reasons why a submission might be rejected, which we will examine next time. 

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