Dealing With The Ultimate Fear
Well, it’s neither easy nor funny to face our fears, and for us artists, the fear of rejection is probably the dreariest of them all!
“No one understands the pain of rejection better than a first-time novelist looking for an agent,” said Ken Pisani, who writes for film and television.
And he continues about the literary agents’ impersonal or automated rejections. “Because when you say no as often as a literary agent, new puppy owner, or parole review board, it’s hard to personalize it. And of course, it isn’t personal: they just hate you and your writing, and, if you included an author photo, your face.”
Publishing agents are the greatest fear for a debutant writer; trust me, I know–I’m there, doing that. Every day, I check my emails, hoping for feedback, because negative or not, it’s better than frustrating silence.
When no response comes from them, it’s utterly demoralizing because it could only mean one thing–the one you refuse to believe: you’re unworthy of their time! Not even an automated, generic answer? Some may be lucky to receive a personalized rejection, even a short critique that could help them revise and perhaps even revamp their writing weaknesses.
Others get the typical rejection form of Query Tracker: “… we weren’t able to connect with the manuscript as much as we had hoped to fully champion the project.” Alternatively, “We wish you the best of luck finding an agent who will represent your work!”, or “Unfortunately, I’ve determined that I am not the appropriate agent to represent this material.”
I found an optimistically interesting and self-sarcastic (the story of my writer’s life) article while pasting my 5-page manuscript on the Query Tracker platform. A long browsing procedure from one Agency’s website to another, seeking the representatives of my genre, with the risk of never getting a reply … Alas, being a debutant and a non-English-native speaker for the literary industry is like a handicap, and for me, a nightmare to defy while keeping hope.
My sole consolation, thanks to internet technology, is self-publishing. Hooray, Amazon KDP, as it nurtures the dream of the little writer residing within.
Should we bypass the relentless rejection stage and do it differently? Sure, but for some unexplained reason, their acknowledgment feels necessary to mark us as authors with something unique to tell and, therefore, worthy of being read. And here we are, knocking on their doors that seem to be hermetically sealed to debutant writers, because a lack of publishing background can’t guarantee their investment. However, we still hope for the bold one who will take the risk to open his door to us.
Ken Pisani humorously addressed the quest’s difficulty (finding an agent for his debut novel) with his amusing, yet so-true article, which describes how “Trying To Find a Literary Agent Is the Worst Thing Ever.”
Read the original article in the Publishers Weekly magazine.