New Sale! And a Motivational Speech of Sorts

Since I signed the contract this morning, I’m sharing my news! My novel, now titled Flight Risk will be published with Samhain Publishing.

I am so excited about this for many reasons, but mainly it is a testament to the age old advice to never give up.

Every book I’ve had contracted has both been rejected and not finaled in contests before it was finally accepted. Sometimes that meant self-imposed revisions, sometimes it meant believing that particular story just wasn’t right for that particular editor/publisher/agent. Flight Risk is no different.

Prior to submitting this book to Samhain, I had previously submitted two manuscripts to them over the course of the past few years. Both were rejected. (One of them being the story I later sold to Entangled Indulgence). I didn’t stop submitting to Samhain because they were a publisher with whom I wanted to work. I simply kept trying to get better, and when I felt I had a good story, submitted it.

Flight Risk first entered the world with a first chapter for the inaugural New Voices competition. In this scene, my heroine got into a bar fight and the hero broke it up. The feedback was not good. I guess a lot of people don’t like heroines getting into bar fights right off the bat?

I rewrote the story, took out the bar fight, then entered it in the inaugural So You Think You Can Write competition. It got nowhere, but I did receive some feedback, which led me to rewrite the entire thing again.

Then, I let it sit. I’d come back to it, fiddle with it, occasionally entering it in pitch competitions or little contests, but mainly I loved the story so much and wasn’t sure it was a rejection I could handle well, so I didn’t submit.

After a few months of that, a publisher with whom I’d wanted to work had a submissions call and my story fit the bill. I submitted. And waited. And waited. Weeks after their submission window ended. My hopes were getting high.

And then I got a form rejection.

It was gutting. After the amount of time that had passed I was sure–SURE–I would at least get some feedback, but I didn’t, and it was hard to swallow. I was ready to throw the manuscript back in the bowels of my computer, except I couldn’t.

I’d rewritten this story completely three times. I’d revised and agonized and worked with my CP and had friends read it. I knew in my bones this was a good story. Perhaps it didn’t fit that publisher, but I believed it was good and it had to fit somewhere.

So, I subbed to Samhain that same week of the rejection. And waited and waited and waited, and then got the email they wanted to contract it early this month and was so glad I hadn’t given up. Not on the story, not on subbing to Samhain.

When people tell you rejection isn’t personal, it’s true. When people say rejection doesn’t always mean your story is bad, it’s true. If you’re continually striving to be a better writer, if you’re willing to work hard and make changes and not always get your way, keep writing. Keep submitting.

Don’t Give Up. Rejection is not the end.