Ouch! I had a very painful week last week. If you can believe it, FOUR rejections in one week. On various projects, from various agents and/or editors. Yikes.

These are the days you think to yourself: I really suck.

Honestly, I don’t know what’s going on. I write the books I want to write, and then I thrust them out there and hope someone gets what I’m trying to do. This week, clearly no one got it.

My biggest rejection was from a big NY publisher. Waited 6 months for that one. SMACK!

The bright side of that rejection was that I received some very nice compliments about my writing. I am trying to focus very closely on that one sentence in the rejection letter. How many authors can say they got a personalized rejection from an NY editor? So that is a big step in the right direction, I should say.

A good writer friend of mine, who has been a real cheerleader these long months, told me that when you start getting rejections like that, you are awfully close. I hope she’s right.

One rejection was also a bright spot…although my book was turned down, the editor offered suggestions to fix it and I was invited to resubmit it. So, I will work on it after my Nano writing. December will be the retooling month. I’m hopeful I can fix it to her liking because I know exactly what she means. I’d targeted another publisher, failed miserably, and thought I’d give it a shot with someone else.

The thing is, you just never know what they are looking for. So I subbed it as is rather than rework it without input.

It’s a cute story, and it deserves some more work. Because I think it could really shine. So there’s that.

Anyway, just wanted to reiterate the toughness of the industry. How hard it can be to break in and have somebody get what you’re doing, see that it is good, and give you a chance to prove yourself.

Let’s hope this week is a little bit brighter….