On Rejection

After expectation often comes rejection. I have a daughter who said to me once, "I refuse to hope anymore. Nothing ever works out, so why bother?" Not entirely true, but where we dare to hope, occasionally our hopes will be dashed.

Yesterday, I received an email from a publisher stating that though she "likes my writing style," my novel, Noble Ark, didn't "fit with their current lineup." A rejection. I've had a fair amount of these. Anyone in the writing business has. I had a well-known agent that I was dying to work with request the full manuscript and then say that it needed more romance up-front and it's hard to sell science fiction in the YA market--rejection. Finally, a wonderful agent read it and picked me up, and then the sit-and-wait started. I got fed up with the whole publishing process and decided to self-publish, which is why this rejection hurt so much.

I wasn't excited at first about going with this publisher. I had just started the ball rolling to self-publish so why should I hand over a percentage of the profits? But they would take care of formatting, help with advertising, and handle much of the distribution. Okay, it might be worth it IF they could give me a good book cover. And then THEY rejected ME! Yeah, it hurt.

And then we move on.

I still have an incredible editor lined up, an amazing artist, and though I'd like to crack my skull against a wall, I'm figuring out how to do a Kickstarter project.  Many people have said they want to see Noble Ark published, to have a copy in their hands and know that the sequels will be coming. Kickstarter will be the test.  I hope it will succeed because hope is the one thing I can't give up. If those hopes are dashed, I'll pick up the pieces and continue to move forward. From this point on, fans and friends, we fail or succeed together.