Be Kind to Yourself

The publishing industry is filled with opportunities for rejection. Don't let it get you down.

For the past fourteen months I’ve been submitting FOREWARNED, a manuscript that’s dear to my heart, to agents and editors. I pitched it in waves, mostly through online events and in person by attending monthly Writing Day Workshops. I traveled to Thrillerfest’s Pitchfest in NYC. I received so much positive feedback, eighty percent asked to see the work and about fifteen percent asked for the full manuscript. I submitted to about thirty industry professionals with that early draft, and I was spurred on.

This is the one, I thought. This manuscript will get me an agent.

Requests for a full manifested gentle rejections.

Not for me.

I didn’t connect with the voice.

It’s too much like other works I already have.

Thanks for sending it, but it’s not right for my list.

I hit it with another revision.

The story’s stronger now, I thought. Over the summer of 2023, I pitched the new draft to about fifty agents and editors. At each WDW conference I met with up to 12 agents and editors and again, usually eighty percent asked for the work. I sent cold queries too—about 20 percent of the total—because those didn’t receive as good a return. However, my good luck continued.

I submitted Forewarned to the Killer Nashville Claymore awards. It placed as a finalist for best mainstream fiction. A handful more agents asked for the full. Several moved it to the top of their lists.

I pitched.

She wowed. “I love it! Send it to me. It’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

Three months later, I never heard back from that editor and I'm still receiving rejection letters.

For now, I’ve put Forewarned on the back burner.

Flowers from my garden last year.

I learned a lot about writing in the last year and a half. I learned even more about the publishing industry. Most importantly, in the face of all that rejection, I’ve learned to be kind to myself. The upside is I received 11 requests for the full ms. Though the delivery was clearly not up to industry standards, something about Forewarned appealed to agents and publishing professionals.

The publishing industry is filled with opportunities for rejection. Writers and artists — be kind to yourselves. We must take time to reflect and get back to what’s real. Feed your creative soul with nurturing things. Listen to your favorite music, visit your favorite people. Cook a comfort favorite food. Tackle that messy corner of the house and make it shine.

Do something that makes you happy.

I haven’t given up on a traditional publishing contract. I’ll go back to FORWARNED someday. In the meantime, I’ll plant more flowers in my garden and work on another thriller.