REJECTION LETTERS

I've learned, now being a writer for 27 years and only published for the last six, that rejection letters are a raw fact of the business. If you're receiving them....then you are truly a part of the writing world.

I remember when I received my first rejection letter. I took it so personal. I cried, vowed never to write another thing as long as I lived, and stashed my manuscript away in a desk drawer.

But, as time went on I discovered I had to write. It was a part of me, almost as much as a leg or an arm. I felt too frustrated stifling the ideas whirling around in my head. And eventually I pulled out that rejection letter again and re-read what the editor had to say.

If you're fortunate enough to get an editor to write the reasons for the rejection, and not just a form letter, relish and cherish the correspondence. Learn from the comments and suggestions, go back and apply them to your story. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised at how much of an improvement is made.

As I took apart my story....with a flinch and a tear....I began to see more clearly what it lacked, what needed to be omitted, and what should be added. The novel was finally published, after seventeen rejections and 25 years later. Today, THE GOLDEN LADY is the first book in a five-book series....book four to be released November 11th, 2012.

The natural reaction to a rejection letter is to quit writing, as the hurt is so great. After putting heart and soul into the story, how can we be anything but hurt? However, stashing your work away is never going to give it a chance to cross another editor's desk.....an editor who might like what she reads.

So, when a rejection letter arrives, give yourself the time to heal your pride and lick your wounds. Go shopping....by yourself a daring shade of lipstick or a new scent. Take a bubble bath. Drink a glass of wine and eat chocolate. Rent a romantic comedy and munch on popcorn. But then get back to that manuscript and send it out again....and again....and again!

HAPPY WRITING! :-)

Roberta C.M. DeCaprio
www.robertadecaprio.com