How to Avoid the Rejection Blues by Lorel Clayton

I get rejected almost every week, and that’s a good thing. It means I’m trying.

Confession: I am self-published and still looking for an agent and traditional publishing deal. I’ve been writing since I was a child, and I sent my first query when I was in my twenties, so I’ve been trying for a very long time. Admittedly, there were decades where I gave up writing and didn’t query at all, and looking back, I kick myself for that weakness. If I’d kept at it, I might have that agent by now.

Being a published author has been my dream since first grade when my book ‘Wise the Owl’ (a funny twist on a wizard at school) won 1st prize in the Young Author’s Contest for my school district. My next book, in 5th grade, was so good the school judges thought my parents had helped and disqualified me. My teacher knew better and got a visiting local author to sign it, which kept my spirits up. My third book, first full length novel really, was a science-fiction, which I wrote on a typewriter during summer breaks when I was going to college. That’s the one I finally finished and queried in 1996, after transferring it to my first Mac computer by laborious scanning and OCR recognition. That one was rejected by Oscar Collier (the agent who’d written the book on how to write a query letter, which I’d studied inside and out). He wrote lots of handwritten notes about how bad the book was. I was demoralized. I stopped writing for ten years. I didn’t query anyone else.

I was so stupid. I should have felt privileged to get a handwritten critique. I should have learned from it instead of hiding my head in the sand.

Writing is something you can’t help doing if you love it. I did lots of journalling, but finally the bug to write another novel struck. I wrote one, a paranormal suspense thriller, that my beta readers liked, and I queried probably two agents at most before I chickened out and decided I needed to get better. No replies. So, I wrote another book. A dark fantasy this time. That one I may have sent to five agents before it was rejected, and I chickened out again.

I’d been blogging and making lots of author friends, which helped keep me encouraged and kept me going. This was 2011, and after seven years of trying to have a baby, I finally had IVF and my son. Thus, I was in hospital and totally missed the blog comment from Hollywood screenwriter Julie Bush (Sons of Anarchy) who said I write well enough I should forget an agent and just self-publish. I really wish I’d seen that comment, because I’d have been perfectly placed to take advantage of the rise of ebooks. Grr!

As it was, months later I was up all night with a sleepless baby and decided for my sanity I needed to write something fun. So, I took the rough idea I’d had for Eva Thorne and turned it into ‘Tangle of Thornes’. I didn’t even try querying. Humorous fantasy/mystery/steampunk/paranormal romance was hard enough for me to explain to readers let alone try to convince an agent! It didn’t matter. This book was all for me and all for fun.

So, I self-published, and five books later I am so happy. ‘Tangle of Thornes’ made it into the top 500 on all of Amazon US (number 1 in Steampunk)! My prequel novella, ‘A Thorne in Time’ made number 1 in its category and also stayed in the Top 10 in Steampunk on Amazon US for six months! Now, ‘Nest of Thornes’ got chosen for a Bookbub New release for Less. I have my fingers crossed it does well, so I appreciate anyone who goes out and buys. THANK YOU!

And guess what, I wrote a whole other series of three middle-grade fantasy books over the last few years, which I’m now querying. I did some great pitches at the Australian KidLitVic conference and had a couple of agents take a look, but it wasn’t right for them. I’ve learned how random it is: you need the right agent looking for the right book for them at the right time. Totally unpredictable.

I’ve decided if it took J.K. Rowling and Stephen King hundreds of rejections (and some people still don’t like their work), then I am aiming for at least 100 rejections! I’m trying three a week, so I’ll get there in a few months and let you know how I go. I may need to write another book and aim for 100 more!

Thanks for reading.