I submitted my first novel and it was rejected. Cue heartbreak. For anyone that has been through rejection you know how hard it is to pull yourself out of the black hole. I’m thankful that after a couple of days and a chat to myself, I was more or less back to normal.

The good news is that the publisher told me what was wrong with it. And I’m so glad they did because once it was pointed out to me, I was like ‘well duh, of course.’ So after about a month of rewrites and revisions and having passed the eye of a yet another beta reader, it’s almost ready to be submitted to a different publisher.

This is the scary part though. What if it gets rejected again? I’ve addressed the issues mentioned by the first publisher so another rejection will be even worse. And what then? If it gets rejected do I keep submitting to different houses? Can I put myself through that kind of pain if they reject? I don’t know. The first rejection was crushing and it shook my confidence so much that I now doubt everything I’ve written. Sometimes I think I’ve done a good job and it’s a great story, but, I thought that the first time too.

A friend said if it gets rejected I should self pub, but, if the publishers reject it then it’s for a good reason. Why would I then self pub just to have it ripped to shreds by the reviewers? We all know how pleasant some of them can be.

I now question my second story which is practically finished, just waiting for me to pull my finger out and do some edits before sending it to the beta’s. What if that’s crap too?

So this is my dilemma. It’s hard to put your work out there, it’s even harder to have all your hard work sent back with a ‘thanks, but no thanks’. Will I submit to another publisher? Yes, I will, I just have to work up the nerve to hit the send button.

If anyone has a rejection story they wish to share, please do. We could start a club.

<3 RJ