Rejection

My first book, a non-fiction for children co-authored by Tania McCartney, was sent off to a publisher in May.

The last three months have been spent trying to forget about it, which I was actually successful in doing most of the time. It helped that whenever I did think about it, I felt sick with nerves, so I soon learnt not to!

Until this week, that is.

Earlier in the week, I emailed Tania. I told her how I'd been lying awake the last few nights thinking about it, worrying that we weren't going to hear anything from the publisher, and wondering if we should start thinking about our next move. She very wisely suggested I forget about it for a while longer. After all, three months in the publishing world is like a week to everyone else.

I did pose this question to her: what is an impatient person like me doing, trying to get into this business? All this waiting is going to kill me.

But I took Tania's advice and forgot about it. I had a good night's sleep that night, and it turned out it was lucky I felt happy and refreshed the next day.

I came home during the next afternoon and checked my emails. My eyes flicked over the names and subjects to get an idea of what was waiting for me - and there was one from Tania, entitled 'FW: Manuscript'.

Uh-oh. This was it.

And it was. It was a big fat - NO.

I quote the publisher: "While we think it's a fabulous idea, I'm afraid that unfortunately it isn't the best fit for our list."

That was nice to hear, and I actually believe her. Surely she'd just say 'not interested' if they thought it was terrible? Right?

And the thing is, I know it's not terrible. I know it's a good idea.

Then I realised something: I felt okay about it. I wasn't sitting there feeling crushed or defeated or heartbroken. I thought I would have been, because I was so worried about sending out our beloved book and risking that someone else might not love it as much as we do. And yet, that fear had been recognised, and I was sitting there thinking, 'Oh well, we'll try again'.

In the very wise words of my daughter - NEXT!

And after all, every author has to face rejection, right?

So, after a few more emails back and forth between Tania and I, and some more research, we're now working on the submission for another publisher. Fingers crossed!


Megan