I Got Rejected!

Last Monday, I got a personal rejection. Not an “and your feet stink and what is up with your hair” kind of rejection. Instead it was: We love your book. We love your artwork. We don’t think it fits our brand.

Being rejected because your book doesn’t fit a publishers brand isn’t a unicorn. Lots of books get a rejection because they don’t fit the publishers brand. I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t fit their brand. I had been surprised that they were interested at all (see this post)

If you are going to be rejected, being told they love your artwork is a pretty good way of doing it.

It reminds me of when my oldest son totaled our truck. It was a single car accident and no one was hurt. If you have to total a car, that is the way to do it.

If I have to be rejected, being told they love my artwork is the way to do it.

I am not really cut up about it. That has surprised me. I thought I would be devastated.

Instead, I have been noodling about other projects I could do for this publisher that would fit their brand. And I’ve been polishing up the project they didn’t want to send off to another publisher.

They gave me some feedback and I took it and the story is stronger. I took one of the new sketches to my critique group last night and got such great ideas to make it and a few other sketches stronger. Every time I submit it to a new publishing house, it just gets better and better.

I got rejected and the future looks bright.