EVERYTHING IS SUBJECTIVE

And How That Makes Me Feel Better About Myself

For the past few weeks, I have had sample chapters of a novel out for submission, which basically means I wake up every day hoping to hear good news while terrified I’ll read an email full of rejection. My book agent sent my proposal to about 15 different editors who now hold my future career in their hands. For the first few days, I felt confident. I had a strong premise and an existing fan base. Plus, publishers get to put “New York Times Bestselling Author” on my work until I die, which seems like it would help sway the decision. But then the first rejection came in and all that confidence went out the window.

The pass was particularly hurtful because the editor had really wanted to like it but couldn’t connect with the main character. This was worrisome for two reasons. 1) I couldn’t blame the rejection on anything other than my own writing and 2) the character was based on me! I felt a rush of fear that this project I had been working on for months was complete garbage. When I expressed this concern to my agent, she said we should wait to see how other people responded before jumping to any conclusions.

That’s when things got even more confusing.

More passes started to roll in but none of them had anything to do with my main character. Instead, each editor seemed to have their own reason for not connecting with the project.

My agent even sent me the following two passes in the same email: