Just got my first rejection from a serious publisher. Now just to be clear, this is not the first time my work has been rejected so maybe that's why it's not really fazing me. I know it's something all writers face and probably everything that can be said on the matter has been said but I figured I'd share my experience anyways. I sent a query letter to Ace last April. In November, I received a response requesting the full manuscript. A week ago I received the formal rejection. It's hard not to look at it like a year down the drain, but I'm still resilient. My co-author and I are going back to the drawing board and accessing which publisher we want to send it to next. It's hard not to get a little frustrated when you think about if it will take a year with each publisher and if it will take 10 publishers or more before someone wants it. I mean, if it takes 10 years to publish that would be insane. I'll still write because it's impossible for me not to but I might give up on trying to get published after 10 years of rejections.
Anyways, I've also been researching the social media practices of authors I admire and I went to the website of Moira J. Moore, author of the Lee and Taro series, and found something interesting (and related). While Ace had been publishing her series (or at least the first 5 out of 6 books), the decided not to publish the 6th/final book. I think it would almost be worst to be picked up by a publisher only to have them drop my series halfway through completion. Hearing about her situation gave me some perspective. I know that publishers are having a hard time staying profitable and while "marketing" was listed as a reason not to publish my book; perhaps Ace is having trouble making even already published series profitable and not willing to take risks with new concepts/books/authors. Well, unless they appear to be the next Harry Potter series.
Lastly, Moira is sharing her 6th book of her series on her website for free (or for donation if you have the money and are willing to part with it). http://moiraj.livejournal.com/ While I'm not a fan of reading the last book in a series, first, knowing it's online for free might prompt people to start reading the entire series. And maybe that's how it will end up being for me as well. Like I said, I'll always write, but I won't spend the rest of my life fighting publishers to finally publish my stuff. Sure, I'll try a couple more and see if someone wants what I've got, but maybe it'll come down to publishing it myself or giving it away for free. Stories were meant to be read, profit or not.
