A Warder walks her city

[annathepiper]

Every single writer who reads my journals knows a fundamental truth: rejection letters are part of the business. Doesn’t mean they’re not a punch in the gut every time you get one. The trick is how to deal with them in a constructive way.

I got one yesterday, and it struck me particularly badly since a couple of folks I know have had the recent awesome fortune of landing agents. The last thing I wanted to do though was whinge to the Internet about yet another rejection letter. Instead, I opted to get out of the house for a while. And although I had the phone with me, I tried to make a point of minimally checking the Internet, too, to eliminate the temptation to whinge. I thought it’d be way more constructive if I got out and did some exercise and maybe spent some time checking various used bookstores for a couple of books I want.

This wound up taking me all the way into downtown Seattle, then back up through the U-district and Ravenna, and finally into Lake City, Kenmore, and home. I walked about four miles all told and visited a total of eight bookstores, and I rode four different busses through the course of the afternoon. And even though I didn’t find the books I was looking for, I did come home with two others: Bloodshot, the new one by cmpriest, and a used copy of Named of the Dragon, by Susanna Kearsley.

By the time I got home I felt less depressed and more at peace. Today, I have sent out more query letters and have felt more like getting back to work. One of today’s queries is in fact going out by snailmail, which is unusual for me since I tend to focus on the people who take email queries–but I’m needing to go farther afield now to find the people who represent more flavors of fantasy than “urban”.

How do you deal with rejection letters, my fellow writers?

Mirrored from angelakorrati.com.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

honest? i mostly self-publish.

the other thing i do is send it out again IMMEDIATELY -- i have a queue for everything i'm submitting. so as soon as something is rejected, it just gets sent on to the next market. (i have a scientific article that's been in this state for four journals now :)

[annathepiper]

Self-publishing is an option I've come to have more respect for, as I've come to realize exactly how many people out there are trying to get published. It's not necessarily easier and there are massive trade-offs, of course, but yeah.

And yeah, the "turn around again and send it out immediately" strategy is one I employ too. Hence knocking out a couple more queries today, to the next two people I was able to find who are representing general SF/F and not just urban fantasy.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I hate to say that I've pretty much started dealing with rejection letters by stopping the behavior that causes them (sending out queries). Which is not a good thing.

[annathepiper]

I hear you. It's not an easy decision either way. :/

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

By titling my rejection folder "Rejection Letters--the fools, the fools!"

[annathepiper]

Bwaha, that's awesome. "THE FOOLS! THE FOOLS! I WILL SHOW THEM ALL" does rather come to mind, doesn't it? ;)