Things often seem to move incredibly slowly in the publishing industry. You submit, you wait, you wait some more. And some more. Time goes by. You give up. Then the rejection comes. You study the rejection, seeking clues. Is it a standard form rejection? You compare it to previous form rejections. Is that sentence slightly different? Probably a typo introduced during a sloppy cut and paste.

But what if it’s not a form rejection? You study it even closer. Because there is a slim chance that it isn’t a blanket rejection but the long sought after R&R. No, not Rest and Recreation, Revise and Resubmit. Oooh. But no. It’s quite clear. This bit is good, this bit not so good. *List of reasons they don’t want it* But please consider sending a NEW project.

So we start all over again.

 

Every now and then we hear faint whispers on the wind of an Author barely out of school who’s first manuscript was fought over by multiple publishing houses for a zillion dollars and subsequently becomes a best seller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is not your life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then something happens. You fling everything you have out into the universe and they come good.  You even briefly have a publishing contract with a digital first press attached to a major publishing company.

And then they shut down. It’s like the universe knows.

But you keep flinging things out there…

And then….

And a fraction over seven days later…

 

 

 

 

And it only took eight years and eight days.