Rejection fatigue

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freelancemomma

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I need some help, folks.

I've had a reasonably successful writing career over the past 20 years. I have two published creative nonfiction books, seven national writing awards, and earn a six-figure income as a freelance writer.

That said, I recently completed a novel and am finding it more difficult than ever to approach agents, even though I've been around this block before. Instead of inuring me to rejection, my age and experience seem to have had the opposite effect: I'm simply tired of it, and something in me recoils from the continuous assault on the ego. Call it rejection fatigue.

At the same time, I really want to get this novel out, as well as the future books I have up my sleeve. How do other people, whether veterans or relative newbies, deal with this rejection fatigue?

Thanks in advance,

Freelance
 

Drachen Jager

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Join us in The Daily Rejection.

Celebrate your failures, each one means you took a risk 100 other people wanted to take, but didn't have the guts.

Start writing the next novel. Ultimately, your first might not get published, even with your experience, it may be flawed, or it just may be the first step on a learning curve. Novels are a new game to you and you can't expect to jump from Hockey to Football and hit it out of the park on your first try (I love mixed metaphors).
 

freelancemomma

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Start writing the next novel. Ultimately, your first might not get published, even with your experience, it may be flawed, or it just may be the first step on a learning curve.

Thanks. It's not actually my first -- I trunked a partial and a full novel manuscript before this one. I feel pretty solid about this book, with the caveat that it's in an unconventional format and may trip up some agents for that reason.

F.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Keep writing novels. There's no reason at all that a first novel should sell, or that a second, or third, or fourth, or fifth should sell. Writing is about as tough a profession as there is, and sometimes you have to write a bunch of novels before one is good enough.
 

stormie

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You got good advice here. Now for my added two cents:

Step away from the novel or any novel WIP and searching for an agent for a few days or weeks. Try not to even think about it. Write your other stuff that brings in the money. Then revisit this horrible wonderful world of seeking out an agent. There are agents who will take on fiction that has an unconventional format. Also, you have a solid background and that's a plus in your bio. Don't give up. Just step away for a bit.
 

Fuchsia Groan

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The Daily Rejection is a great place to hang out. So is the Next Circle, if you're agented and on sub (and facing more rejection!).

Last time I queried, I got rejection fatigue early in the process (<30 queries). I was demoralized by a number of failures involving two other books — one was rejected by editors, the other by my then-agent.

So I held myself back from querying much, and fiddled a lot with the query and early pages. Every form R felt like a slap in the face; Rs on fulls were even worse.

Then, when I least expected it (a month after sending out any queries), everything changed for the better.

The only advice I can find here (besides: don't give up!) is that tinkering can be helpful to a point. I don't think it improved my query much, but I do think my new opening (reorganized to include more external as well as internal action) made a difference. So did getting beta reads and using 'em.

Rejection is never completely out of the picture, at any level (unless you're a huge best-seller and could sell your grocery list if you so chose). So we all get fatigued at times... good luck and hang in there!
 

SentaHolland

'Out of the Shadows' HarperCollins
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Every rejection hurts.
And, at least for me, it's yet another circle of hell with every book.
But what I learned from the journey with 'Out of the Shadows' is that I my judgement is clear, my writing skills are what they need to be, and my book, when published, reached many readers' hearts and minds.
For me, this is important to remember.
I know now from my own experience that finding the right editor at the right time is equivalent to one of those planetary constellations that only occur once in who knows how many years - but they do occur.
So I keep working on it.
But - it's a terrible waste of my time.
I wish there was a better way.
 

Taylor Harbin

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First thing I would do is step back and look at how much you've already accomplished. Most of us can only dream of making that much money by writing! Heck, I don't consider myself enough of an expert to write any meaningful non-fiction.

You got this much on me: you're a professional, I am not. That counts for a lot.
 
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