12 x 12 member Darshana Khiani was so inspired by one of our member’s rejection streak, she planned a giveaway for you! Read on for details!
This past week Hannah Holt announced that she was celebrating her 100th rejection! I thought what a wonderful idea. After all, it’s not about the end result but rather celebrating the journey. Celebrating the persistence, the B.I.C., the learning, the hair-pulling moments – celebrating the courage to put one’s heart out there for all to see. And having the courage to keep querying and continuously writing despite the rejections. First, congrats to all of you for putting yourself out there whether it be sharing your stories for critiques, querying agents, entering contests, or subbing to publishers. You are all WRITERS that are “On Your Way”.
Because the journey to getting that first book deal can be twisty and arduous, I wanted to give a little something. In the spirit of celebrating milestone rejections, I am sponsoring two raffles for 12×12 members. Both contests will have the same prize pack.
The prize pack will include one inspirational writing craft book and a box of chocolates. The winner will choose one book from the following: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne, or Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. If the winner lives in a warm area, I might substitute the box of chocolates for another sweet confection. Would hate for the chocolates to arrive melted.
The first contest is open to writers who do not have agent representation and are unpublished (may not have a book under contract) and have amassed at least 25 rejections over their lifetime.
The second contest is open to writers who are unpublished (may not have a book under contract) and have amassed at least 50 rejections over their lifetime. This is open to writers with and without agent representation.
The rejection count includes rejections to agents, publishers, and magazines. For the purposes of this contest, a “pass/no thanks/no reply” received for one or more manuscripts from a single query should be counted as a single rejection. Conversely, querying the same agent twice, but months or years apart should be counted as two rejections.
This contest is being run on the honor system, so need to submit anything just enter the appropriate raffle if you meet the qualifications. If you qualify for both contests, then please only enter the second contest (50 rejections) to give everyone a fair chance.
Best of luck to everyone in the query/submission trench in 2017!
Happy Holidays!
10 Responses
Good luck to all entrants! I can only celebrate ONE official rejection although I had other entiries that I never heard back on….there’s always next year!
A “no reply” from an editor/agent that is a “no reply means no” does constitute as a rejection. Good luck. 🙂
This is fabulous, Darshana!!! I love your idea…thank you for doing this!!!
What a wonderful thing to do, Darshana! Thank you for it!!! Makes being rejected kind of fun, in a way. 🙂 Happy New Year to all the 12×12-ers, and here’s to a new year of success!
Yes, a wonderful idea, indeed, Darshana! Thanks for thinking of those of us who are still struggling to be published. Happy New Year!
This is such a fun idea! Thank you!
What a great idea, Darshana! Thank you for making being rejected not hurt as bad as we struggle down that twisty, turny road to becoming published
Thank you so much Darshana for your creativity and brilliance in creating a fun way to celebrate our rejections. I just made the 51 rejection mark this week with 2 rejections; one from an agent and one from Boyds Mill Press. I had to go through my rejection file from the last 23 years and count them. 38 were from the past two years, 26 of those 38 are just this year. I still have 12 subs out I have not heard back from in their alotted time frame. I was pretty bummed about the last two rejections so when I read this e-mail this morning, you made me laugh and smile. Cheers to all of us for giving it our all and continuing in our pursuit. May 2017 bring more success stories!!! You rock Darshana!
Darshana – Thank you so much for hosting this! It’s so hard not to let rejections bring you down, let along be excited about them. I’m nearing 300 and finding it hard not to throw in the towel. This contest is a little light in all that darkness. Thanks for the inspiration!
What a wonderful celebration! I just got the most encouraging rejection I’ve ever gotten, so though I’d rather get an agent, I’m happy to celebrate my rejections! Thanks for helping!