The value of the rejection process

I swam down to McNally Jackson tonight to catch the greatly talented and fetchingly modest about her talent Betsy Lerner talking about her book THE FOREST FOR THE TREES.

Companions in crime, Kathleen Orteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze and Mer-Bear of the Lair joined me.

Meredith take notes at these things since she's the only one I can boss around the best at it. Both Kathleen and I  hissed "write that down" when Betsy said this:


One of the most important things a writer needs to learn is how to to separate information from analysis. 

She was talking about the stream of rejections that come with the writing biz.  It's important to separate the information "no, this agent is not going to read your work" from analysis "this agent doesn't think your work is good enough"

If you think of every rejection as an analysis of your work you'll make yourself nuts.

If you think of the query process as simply as way to get information --which agent wants to read your book-- you'll make yourself less nuts.

Betsy said it better of course, and you should read THE FOREST FOR THE TREES. to get the full sense of how eloquent she is on the subject.