At what point should an aspiring writer decide enough is enough and just…give up?
How many rejections does it take – a dozen, a hundred, a thousand – before it’s time to abandon ship and admit defeat?
I pondered these questions recently when a good friend – an indie writer trying to get a traditional publishing deal – complained that her stories weren’t selling. After six months, she’d had some interest from a few editors, but no contract offers, just rejections. And she was starting to get seriously discouraged.
Perhaps, she reasoned, she was wasting her time. Perhaps she should give up. Perhaps being a published writer was all a pipe dream.
It’s only been six months, I reassured her. That’s far too early to give up. You’re a good writer. Your stuff is funny, and fresh, and different. You have an agent who thinks so too…or she wouldn’t have offered you representation. It just takes time.
And that’s truer now than it’s ever been. Publishing houses are acquiring fewer manuscripts. Budgets are tight. It takes agents much longer to sell a novel than it used to. So what’s a hopeful, unpublished writer to do?
The answer, of course, is as individual as the writer. Yes, there are setbacks to getting published, and no, it isn’t easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be so difficult – or so exciting when it happens. Â Publishers are in the business of providing quality books for readers. Period. They don’t exist to make every aspiring writer’s dream of getting into print come true. Publishers are looking for books that the reading public will want to buy. They’re looking for books that will make them money.
Because at the end of the day, publishing is a business.
If a writer amasses enough rejections – say, two years’ worth, or three, or five – then perhaps it’s time for some honest self-evaluation. Is your book truly ‘not connecting with the right editor’? Is it really an ‘unfound treasure just waiting to sail up the bestseller charts’ or a ‘misunderstood masterpiece’?
Or is it a piece of badly-written crap?
If you’re not sure, get someone to read your book and give you an honest, unbiased opinion. That doesn’t mean asking your aunt Mabel, or you best friend, or even one of the nice gals in your reading group. It means asking someone who can provide an unflinching and informed review of your work. That person might be a teacher, a college student who reads a lot in your genre, or your local librarian.
If they tell you they didn’t like it, ask for specific feedback. Why didn’t it work for them? Was the pace too slow? Were the characters boring? Was it far-fetched? Unoriginal? Too weird? Could it be improved, reworked? Or was it just plain…bad?
Once you have some answers, you can make an informed decision. You might decide to give up, or stay in the game for one more year, or you might keep plugging on no matter how long it takes.
Because in the end, perseverance is important. But so is talent. You can be the most stubborn person in the world…but if the first few paragraphs / pages of your story don’t impress an agent or acquiring editor because the talent isn’t there, no amount of tenacity will make a difference.
It may be that the story itself is the problem. Have you tried to breathe new life into a tired trope? Or are you telling a story that’s already been told the same way a dozen times before? Are you writing to satisfy what you think an editor wants…or are you writing what you want?
If you truly believe you can write – if you do it because you love it and you can’t imagine not doing it – and if others who’ve read your work offer you encouragement (and if they aren’t just blowing smoke up your ass), then by all means, don’t give up. Persevere. There are plenty of stories (my own included) of writers who were about to call it quits when they finally sold their book.
In the end, when to give up (or whether to give up) is a question only you can answer.
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