Rejection…

Nobody likes rejection. Maybe I’m biased, but I feel like it’s probably even worse for authors.

As is my wont, I’ve made some videos about it.

Video script:

Hi, I’m Jess, a writer and careers advisor, and this is careers advice for writers. This video is about every author’s favourite word... 

...Rejection. In this video, I want to talk about how to deal with it when you’re right in the middle of it, because it sucks – there's no way around that – but unfortunately, we’re embroiled in an industry full of it. The only way to stick it out? Probably to get used to it. 

Well, I guess we could just write better stories, right? But here’s the thing: you could write the “best” book in the world... and I’m sure thousands of people have. But ultimately, that by itself isn’t always enough. The thing is, there are so many books being written every single year, and only so much space on bookshelves. If you’re aiming for traditional publishing – well, I’m sure we all know how difficult that is – but even if you’d like to self-publish, you could still be rejected by readers, or literary festivals, etc. 

I always feel like – yes, you need to write the best thing you can. When you’ve done that, you still need a huge amount of luck. It’s luck that means the right person reads your work at the right time and is in the right mood to see the vision and also knows the right spot in the market for it, etc etc etc. 

So, if the first thing I want to say about rejection is that it’s pretty inevitable in this industry, the second thing I want to say is this: it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It doesn’t mean you’ve written something terrible, or that you’re incapable of writing something else and selling your current project later. Maybe luck just wasn’t on your side this time. 

And like, rejection hurts. Why do you think I don’t check my reviews? I think it especially hurts when it’s rejection of your art because art is so subjective. I know a ton of people have really enjoyed my book – they liked that it’s Northern, dark, and funny. Those are also reasons other people have specifically not liked it.  

The trick is accepting a “no”, or an “I didn’t like that” without letting it stab you in the heart so badly there’s no recovering. And I know that’s easier said than done, but to be clear: you kind of don’t have a choice. Or you do, but the alternative is just... giving up. 

I say this a lot to my students who are applying for massively competitive graduate schemes as well – you will be rejected from some of them. Most of them, probably. So then what? Well, either you stop trying, or you figure out how to get over it. 

And that sounds really blunt, which is not like me – but don’t worry, because next time I’m going to suggest some practical means of doing that.