Are You on the Agent Hunt? Don’t Stop With One Rejection!

I recently came across an article online written by a self-published author. As I continued to read the article, I realized there was something wrong with his story.

 

The author shared his story about his search for a literary agent for his novel. Right after one rejection from the one and only agent he queried, he leapt to the decision to self-publish his novel.

 

I could only sit in my chair and stare at those words, stunned. Really? He only queried ONE agent? And gave up his search after ONE rejection? I was like, Seriously? After just one rejection? I have tons of rejections from agents!

 

Sadly, this is a common action many new authors take. After just one rejection, they opt to self-publish instead. And while there’s nothing wrong with self-publishing your book (I know MANY self-published authors who have met success with their self-published titles), I can’t stop thinking about how this author gave up on the agent hunt so easily.

 

As for me, I really can’t afford to just query one agent and be done. First of all, there are agents who take forever to respond, while others will respond quickly. Plus, there’s a chance that the one agent I queried might not be a good fit, but another agent just might.

 

I’m too passionate about my novel to do the bare minimum in finding an agent for it! I believe in my novel and I KNOW it will sell. I KNOW it’s a good story and I KNOW it will be a timely book. So, I give it my all in either trying to find an agent for this book – or a publisher who loves it too and wants to publish it.

 

Maybe I am just too stubborn to take an alternative route for getting my novel published. Or maybe it’s my “never say die!” attitude as a freelance writer that gets me to keep querying those agents.

 

Whatever it is, I am still on the agent hunt, lo these many months after getting my first rejection. I’m not ready to “give up” just yet. I KNOW there is an agent and a publisher out there who will love my novel just as much as I do.

 

But I understand that rejection can be tough for a lot of new authors. This is especially true for first-time authors. Rejection is hard, and some writers tend to take rejection personally.

 

The thing these writers need to understand is that rejection is a part of the writing life. It’s not the end of a writing life, it’s not a crisis, it’s not a personal opinion about the quality of your work. It is simply a part of this crazy life we live as writers. It’s just as much a part of the writing life as getting an acceptance or trying to find just the right market to submit your work to.

 

Once you understand and accept that rejection happens for every writer and that it’s not a reflection of you and your work, it becomes easier to tolerate rejection. A rejection is just one person saying “not right for us” – and you should really trust their judgment! They know their business and their audience a lot better than writers not associated with their business or unaware of their audience. They don’t feel that “pull” that your work should attract, and they feel that they can’t do your book the same kind of justice another publisher or agent who LOVES your book would be able to do.

 

Just don’t take rejection personally. And don’t give up after the first rejection.

 

Part of the process of finding a literary agent is receiving rejections. That’s just the way it is. If you are on the agent hunt, you WILL collect rejections along the way. Count on it.

 

All of those rejections are the stepping stones you need to take in order to find that ONE agent who will say “yes.” And then you can look back at all those rejections from other agents and take pride in the fact that you never gave up. You finally reached the end of your journey despite all of those stumbling blocks that tried to knock you down.

 

So don’t see one rejection from an agent as a signal to give up on your search. Rather, see it as proof that you need to keep going.

Don't Ever Believe That Something "Can't" Be Done

 

“I can’t write this!”

 

“I can’t make this story work.”

 

“I can’t do this!”

 

“Can’t” is a very annoying word. There’s something final about it. When someone is told “It can’t be done,” that’s like a permanent end to something. Don’t even try to change it; there’s no way around it once someone says “can’t.”

 

But you really need to remove that word from your vocabulary – especially if you are a writer.

 

By accepting that you “can’t” write a particular thing or that you “can’t” figure out how to write a story, you’ll end up trashing and abandoning more ideas and WIPs. You’ll end up never going all the way. And, you just might give up trying to get published.

 

That’s not the kind of attitude a writer should have.

 

The kind of attitude a writer should have is the “can do” attitude. It may sound cheesy, but a writer really needs to have faith in their abilities in order to achieve success. They need to believe that they CAN write something, CAN get published and CAN get an agent.

 

You just have to believe that you can!

 

There is always a way.

 

Don’t ever permanently close the door on something.

 

If you really want something, then keep trying to make it happen. Don't accept the first sign of defeat; fight for what you want! It may take a very long time and it may take brainstorming with other people, but if you want something, really want to do something, really want to learn something or really want to write something, then keep trying. Then try some more! Just don’t give up.

 

If you’re struggling with a story, take a break. Do other things in order to give your creativity the time and boost it needs to figure things out.

 

If you’re struggling with getting published, then DON’T GIVE UP! Keep writing and submitting!

 

If you’re frustrated because your first go at getting published means not getting paid for it, then hang in there! Something better will come along. I had to accept nonpayment for writing articles in my local newspaper before I got paid to write articles for a national newspaper. I just had to keep an eye out for that better publication opportunity.

 

If you’re struggling with learning how to write something new, then keep trying. Keep at it. Read everything you can about how to write it, take courses and study the thing you are trying to write.

 

It may take a long time to achieve the kind of goal you aim for, but it’s worth it to hang in there. It’s worth it to keep trying. And it’s worth it to believe that, no matter what, you can do it.