Authors dealing with rejection
Firstly, thank you for having me!
Back in December 2009 I wrote a short story for a DSP anthology A Brush Of Wings and submitted it very close to the deadline. It was my first ever submission, and I got an email back in a couple of days to say they wanted it.
Oh my, I was an author. I was published. It was all going to go so easy for me.
Only my first novel, Oracle, was rejected. There was too much telling, and I’m not sure that I even understood what that meant at the time. They advised me I could revise and resubmit, and I looked at my Manuscript and wasn’t sure what to do. I was gutted. I was clearly a really crap author, who would never get anything accepted. I think, given this was my baby, I felt like no one could say anything bad about it.
I had to harden up fast, because it isn’t just rejection I faced as an author, but criticism and gasp reviews.
I re-read the book. It originally started something like
In blah blah AD, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, blah blah, insert long name and familial connection, explain clouds, etc etc.
Okay, so I needed to say all that. The book is a passionate love story, a mystery, paranormal type affair, and the main theme is the Oracle in Delphi. It’s a modern-day story but the roots of it were firmly set in ancient Greece.
So, I did some rewrites. Learning from fellow authors and realised one important lesson. The reader doesn’t necessarily need to know the origin story right away. Perhaps it is more of a mystery when the back story is revealed in dialogue, or later scenes.
So this is the new beginning:
When he was nine, Alex Sheridan, the boy with new parents and no memories, disappeared.
Immediately there are questions. How did he disappear? Why? What happened to his memories…
Rejection made me tighten up the book, not ramble, focus on the romance, timeline my mystery, but most of all that I should show, not tell.
The book was taken by another publisher within a couple of days of me sending it (boo hiss they who shall not be named) and was my first published novel. I’m not sure how many it sold, but it did okay, and it now even has a sequel. That particular publisher took all my books, then I moved on to other publishers, wasn’t rejected again, and finally, decided Self-Publishing was my route.
Now I publish all my books through my own publisher, and so there is no rejection from submission. That’s a relief.
However, self-publishers can still suffer from rejection, it just comes in the form of not selling!
My advice if you’ve been rejected is - don’t be disappointed, keep trying, keep writing.
What I learned from rejection was that it was an incredible form of constructive criticism. If I had taken that initial rejection and given up I would have lost out on the most amazing career, and not met so many wonderful authors and readers.
ORACLE
Alex Sheridan is a thief, able to steal even the hardest to reach antiquities. Luke MacKinnon is a professor of ancient languages.
When they come together to locate the Oracle, it is because both men have targets on their backs. Can love blossom when each day could be their last? And, how can they survive the evil that wants the Oracle?
BOOK OF SECRETS
Alex is making good on his promise to put things right; retrieving items he had stolen, and returning them to their rightful owners. It's dangerous work, especially since he lost his most useful Oracle-given powers.
When Luke is kidnapped by a man intent on finding the secrets to eternal life, Alex has to make a bargain with the devil and break steal an item from the private library at Windsor Castle. Will Alex be too late to save the man he loves?
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About the Author
RJ’s goal is to write stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, that hint of a happily ever after.
RJ is the author of the over one hundred novels and discovered romance in books at a very young age. She realized that if there wasn’t romance on the page, she could create it in her head, and is a lifelong writer.
She lives and works out of her home in the beautiful English countryside, spends her spare time reading, watching films, and enjoying time with her family.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn’t like it one little bit and has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
She’s always thrilled to hear from readers, bloggers and other writers. Please contact via the following links below:
RJ is the author of the over one hundred novels and discovered romance in books at a very young age. She realized that if there wasn’t romance on the page, she could create it in her head, and is a lifelong writer.
She lives and works out of her home in the beautiful English countryside, spends her spare time reading, watching films, and enjoying time with her family.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn’t like it one little bit and has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
She’s always thrilled to hear from readers, bloggers and other writers. Please contact via the following links below:
I am so very happy that Rj didn't given up after that first rejection. Never reading any of the stories she has given us over the years and never having the pleasure of "meeting " her is impossibly sad to even think about.
ReplyDeleteShe is a phenomenal author and person/ chick. 😁😘