Dealing With Rejection
filed in Creativity, Self Publishing on Jan.23, 2011
In creative endeavors, you often submitting to contests, agents, or publishers. More often than not, your work is rejected.
That’s the moment that separates the pros from the amateurs. Many a good writer or artist falls to the wayside after a few rejections. And the truth is quite simple: If you don’t submit what you’re doing to publishers or somehow put it in front of the public (with a web site, self published title, or the like) you’ll never gain a following.
The idea that the world beats a path to your door if you event the better mousetrap might once have been true (but I doubt it); it for sure is no longer truth. There is competition out there and if you don’t display your work and get it in front of potential buyers, they’ll simply buy the inferior work of someone who has got their attention.
If you hide your light under a bushel, no one will see it shining.
Here’s a trick that might help you: If you assume that you’ll have X number of rejections before winning the contest or getting published, then you can view each rejection as one step closer to your goal. See each rejection as part of the process that will get you to where you want to be. Don’t let it discourage you; let it be an encouragement.
Keep submitting to whatever market might be interested in your work.
Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Eventually you’ll realize your dream.
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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, ISFiC Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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January 28th, 2011 on 7:29 am
Yes, Duncan – I have to agree. I received my first rejection in the summer of 1985. I remember it well. I stood by the mail box and thought, “Gee, that was a quick end to what I thought would be a career!” Needless to say, I was not a hardened professional in those days. I beat a path to my mailbox, and would often meet the postman, who thought I was completely nuts.
These days, it’s faster, and could be death by a thousand cuts unless you know what it’s like. It’s exactly like you say. A light under a bushel is no light at all, is it?
I had an amazing 2010, which followed a 2009 that was so full of rejections, but which brought about acceptance of According to Luke. 2011 promises to be just as full of electronic ‘No, thank yous’, but what a problem it would be if they all said ‘Yes, please’.