Don't Panic! Don't Let Emotions Get In Your Way

The publishing world can be hard and certainly feel cruel sometimes. You are out there busting your butt with your writing and trying to do all you can to be successful, and then you end up with some news that brings you down. 

Don't panic. 

I have been working on some submissions for one of my authors recently. Unfortunately, we got a rejection. Before going on, let me stress that EVERY agent gets rejections for projects. You just always hear about the good results. In any case, we got the rejection. In this case, the comment once again said amazing things about her writing. In fact, we are only getting positive comments about her writing. The rejection stemmed from the cramped market space for new authors. 

We know the market is full. We know competition is high. We just like to ignore that when we are submitting those projects to editors and agents. Just the reminder alone was tough. The authors comment to me was "well that isn't really positive." I can't disagree with her comment. 

But what did we do? We moved on. We focused on the positive side of things. We focused on the projects she has in the works. We focused on her recent three book contract. We focused on her works in progress. More importantly, we focused on all of the positive comments she has gotten on the quality of the writing. 

This author is not unique. A lot of published authors face the same things all of the time. They hit parts of their books when they "know their career is over." The story they totally loved in the earlier chapters now totally sucks. They get reviews that are not 5 stars when they have been on a roll with great reviews. Maybe sales just weren't as good they had hoped. The list is endless.

Again, don't panic. Just focus on what you are doing. Keep your eye on the target. If the writing is not working right now, get up, take a walk, do something to get your head back in the game (for me, I go and clean the house or something domestic). Make sure to always have someone there who will always boost your morale. 

You got this!