I’ve been thinking A LOT about rejection lately; generally because I haven’t landed a literary agent yet, and specifically because I recently received the tersest, apathetic rejection I have ever received. It was one line. All it said was, “Not for me–thanks anyway.” I suppose I should be grateful I even received a response, but it felt like a punch in the gut after all the work I spent in not only polishing the manuscript, but in drafting the query letter and personalizing it, and doing my due diligence in research, and in spending every Saturday morning sending letters to at least five agents at a time.

Thus, it seems very serendipitous that I joined another writing group with some course mates from the Master’s program in Ireland. Jane, who I lovingly call “the girl boss,” got us all organized. It’s been decided we’ll meet virtually on the first Sunday of every month and discuss upcoming writing opportunities and critique each other’s work and devote time to writing by using prompts. I felt like a real writer, like I’ll be getting somewhere soon.

I told my writing friends about the rejection and we told each other nearly every success story begins with many rejections; sometimes, many, many, many rejections. I was Googling to find a link about famous rejections to share in the chat when I came across this LitHub piece.

Did you know the most rejected book of all time (according to this list, anyway) is a book called Irish Wine by Dick Wimmer?

If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I’m a firm believer in seeing signs and symbols. Naturally, I found it not much of a coincidence that the first novel had an Irish connection. As I kept scrolling, I found another.

MY DISSERTATION SUPERVISOR? One of the most talented writers I’ve ever had the immense pleasure of reading? Doesn’t seem possible.

Needless to say, as I scrolled through the list, I felt relieved I was in good company (Stephen King, Samuel Beckett, William Golding, and James Joyce all made the list). Most of the stories end in success because the writer never gave up. Some self-published and gained some notoriety which enticed agents and/or editors, while others just keep plugging away.

Maybe once I pass 162 rejections, I’ll rethink my strategy. But for now, I’m going to keep on keepin’ on.

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