So how can I possibly say that rejection is ever a good thing?
You could somehow have found yourself in a situation where you're querying a manuscript that's not in the genre you want to debut in (I have done this before--in that I realized I wanted to debut in a certain genre and what I was querying at the time wasn't that genre. So I stopped querying.) You also could find that while you're waiting the long months for agents to get back to you on a full (or to hear from a publisher at all) you think of a really brilliant but seriously hefty way to revise the novel (that might change its genre or age group), but it'll take some time or you're in the middle of something else.
Rejection still hurts, no matter what. But it's GOOD if a book that isn't where you want it to be gets rejected. If you're like me, you don't want to start off your career with something that isn't for the age group or genre you plan to be writing in for the majority of your life. And you don't want an agent or a publisher to want to sign you, but when you tell them you'd been thinking of certain revisions already, they say they're not into that idea, or they only want minor changes. Can you say no to a deal you've dreamed of because your novel isn't right by YOUR standards? Would you even think of saying no?
I can think of two more examples: when a couple months after an agent rejects you, he or she leaves the business. And when you realized based on what an agent said when she rejected you (if it's not a form letter) that she would be wrong for you anyway (she doesn't like main characters with an interest in unicorn breeding and you can't imagine not writing about characters who breed unicorns.)
So what about you? Have you ever realized receiving a certain rejection was a good thing? Can you think of any other situations in which getting a rejection would be the best possible outcome?
I guess I'd have to say that the 99 rejections I got before I queried my agent were good ones. :)
ReplyDeleteThat novel is finally becoming the story I want to share with the world, so I wouldn't want to change a thing!
You've given some great examples here. Each rejection means that agent wasn't right for you, so... that can only be a good thing!
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. Well, you know this is VERY close to home for me right now. I guess I could say this: every rejection I've received--especially those from editors--has taught me something. Maybe not the form rejections, but the ones that actually bothered to say something constructive.
ReplyDeleteThe book I was querying in the spring was rejected by all the agents I queried, including the two who requested a full. I'm glad that's so, because it made me realize I was miscategorizing the subgenre. It's 20th century historical fiction (1959-74), but it's not YA in spite of having a majority of young characters. It's a Bildungsroman, which isn't always necessarily a YA book. It also has a lot of elements of women's fiction.
ReplyDeleteMost egregious of all for me, being the big sinistral chauvinist I am, I came to realize I forgot to make any characters lefties. I'm going back and slowly writing in left-handedness for 11 of the characters. I always have at least a few lefties and ambis in my sets of characters, and am so embarrassed I forgot to put any in the first draft!
In hind sight, every single one of my rejections have been good things. I KNOW that my stories weren't where they needed to be, where I needed to be. And I don't want my first one to be something I now know could have been so much better.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post! (as always) :)
YES! Every rejection I ever received was a good one because it resulted in me going down a different path than what I was planning and wishing for. And that path has been much better than what I thought I wanted. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you looking at the cupcake in a positive light. :)
xo
Way to look for the silver lining!
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