So last year I finished my first novel. I was pretty stoked because the process went pretty smoothly and I’m quite satisfied with the results. I sent it to a few friends to read over and the results are positive. I edit and tweak the story and have proclaimed it finished (until a publisher tells me to make changes). Once all that was finished I was left with a strange sense of “now what.”

I’ve read enough business books to know that when you don’t know something, talk to someone who has successfully done it. I have a tangential connection the best-selling author William Bernhardt and he happens to live in my town. So I write him a brief letter telling him that I finished my novel and wasn’t sure what to do next and if he had any advice. I get a note back saying to give him a call and we can discuss it.

So with a little trepidation, I dial his number and we chat briefly about my next step. He tells me that I need to get an agent, almost any agent. I might only stay with that one for a year or so but it was the next step necessary. He indicated that going to writing conferences was the best way to talk to them but there were none coming up in my area in the near future.

So armed with that information I grabbed a book with a list of agents in it and proceeded to narrow the list down to ones that cover the genre I wrote in (thriller). Once I did that, I ordered the list from most likely to least likely. I then found a website that basically reviews agents and checked on my list. Most were fine but a few fell to the bottom as being shady. Thus armed with this information, I began to send out query letters looking for an agent who was interested in my work.

Soon the rejection notices came in. It was not a big surprise every author gets rejected. When I would receive one, I’d just go to the next agent on my list and try them. All of the responses were professional and generic. The rejection notices continue to come in and I keep working my way down my list. I’ve analyzed my query letter and made tweaks here and there but ultimately I believe it does what it needs to do.

So why do I keep getting rejection notices? Really, there are only a few options. 1) My novel is not that interesting. 2) I am incapable of generating interest in my work. 3) I’m not hitting the right person at the right time and am getting lost in the shuffle.

I am fairly confident that 1 and 2 are not accurate. So that leaves number 3. Unfortunately, I don’t know what I can do about not being in the right place at the right time. Still, knowing that it is probably not the quality of my work that is being rejected helps a little.

Authors tend to have fragile self-images, and at times I am no exception, still these rejection notes are not as devastating to me as I would have expected. Don’t get me wrong, I still get bummed each time I see one of my self addressed stamped envelopes in the mail, but I know it is not indicative of me as a person. To me it shows how much I’ve grown over the years that I can handle this type of rejection with only a little impact to my self-image.

Besides, I keep telling myself that only one person has to say yes.