BookHuntersBlog.com

Welcome to part 2. Today we have Michael Balkind, author of Sudden Death, and his take on

How To Deal With Rejection?

Answer - Embrace it.

You know it’s coming so prepare yourself for it. It comes in all forms and the more queries you send, the more rejections you’re going to get. So, the best answer is expect rejection, laugh at it, embrace it. And always keep in mind that every NO you receive brings you one step closer to that necessary YES. (You only need one Yes - well that is, one from an agent and another after that from a publisher)

It doesn’t matter whether you plan to read them and then file them where they belong, or whether you plan to wallpaper a room with them so you can go in a and have a good cry once in a while, rejections will come. Some of them are absurd, some are funny, very few will give you any suggestions on how to fix the reason they are rejecting you.

One of the critical points to handling rejection is to try to understand why agents and publishers actually reject most of what they receive. I remember the day that I first realized that if I was going to get my work published in the traditional manner, that I needed to put my super tough, super thick, extra layer of Zylon skin on. (For those wondering - Zylon is a lighter form of body armor than Kevlar). Anyway, years ago I went to a publishing conference and listened to some agents, editors and new authors speak about what it takes to achieve success in this crazy business. What stands out in my mind even to this day was the first statement made by one of the agents. She stood up in front of the audience of about 300 struggling writers (all looking to publish something) and said that the prior year her office received about 6000 query letters. Then she informed us that at the end of the year her office actually worked on only 100 books. How many rejections does that equal? Can you say 5900?! Now, although you have to understand what you’re up against, you don’t have to run and hide. Just prepare yourself mentally and put on that thick skin.

Don’t get nervous - Just get tough! As she said, she wasn’t trying to scare us - she just wanted to let us know what we were up against. Agents and publishers have to sift through a lot of @#$% to find the right projects that will sell.

Always remember, if your work is good, well, maybe very good, it will get picked up if you persevere. You must believe in yourself and your work. Then you must send out a ton of queries. Then be prepared for the rejections. But more important than anything else is to remember how many acceptance letters you need. That’s right! Just ONE!

If you remember that you only need one YES, it makes all the no’s you are going to get along the way a little easier to handle.

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Thank you very much for your contribution! Part 3 tomorrow, July 3rd.
Want to be part of this? Then send us an email!

Visit Michael Balkind’s Profile for more information or visit www.BalkindBooks.com. Sudden Death is now available!