I am not quite to the point of having enough rejection letters to wallpaper my office, but on some days it feels like that. Most professional writers say don’t go into this business if you can’t take rejection, because rejection is the norm for most writers-even the successful ones. I read an article in one of my writers magazines about an author who received 1000 letters of rejection over a three year period before she got picked up and marketed to the masses. Now she is publishing best selling books across many genres.

 The quality she has, that I need to emulate, is perseverance. For those of you without a Webster’s handy, the definition of perseverance is: steady and continued action or belief, usually over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks. Therefore, I have to not only believe in myself and continue writing, I have to keep putting myself out there even when I know that rejection is statistically the most likely outcome.

In some ways, the hard part is behind me. I mean, I’ve written four complete novels for Pete’s sake. It’s like I have 90% of the job done. But it feels like this last part of the process is the steepest part of the mountain and for every step I take to try to take to reach the top, there are thousands of tiny loose rocks that trip me up, bruising and bloodying my knees (read ego).

To that end, in the next few minutes I’ll be on my way to UPS to mail out two more manuscripts that I continue to believe in. Tomorrow I will be mailing out query letters to agents and after that I will start on a new book! I AM going to beat the odds. I just have to continue to persevere and hook up with the right agent/agency.