Rejected

When I sent my manuscript to publishers, I felt that I had achieved something and the outcome wouldn’t matter. What was important was that I had written the book and submitted the manuscript. Achievement enough.

Today I received my first rejection. It was nicely phrased: “we enjoyed reading your manuscript”, but then came the punch: “we will not be making an offer for publication”. There it was: rejection. Which is how I felt. Suddenly, I felt that my manuscript probably wasn’t very good (not good enough) and that by extension, I wasn’t very good. I felt like a failure: I had been rejected. I realised I had my ego tied up in this manuscript, but it was, after all, my writing.

As much as I try to convince myself it doesn’t matter – and remind myself that two other publishers have yet to respond – the reality is, it does.

On the bright side: I can call myself a real writer now that I’ve been officially rejected.