Every writer experiences rejection in their career – even brilliant ones such as Proust, Joyce or myself. My Secret Agent Luke Warm novels have been rejected by over 900 publishers, which is frankly ridiculous given the exquisite quality of the prose.
In my opinion, the best way to deal with rejection is to reject it. Every letter of rejection I have received from a publisher has received a letter of rejection from me in return. If they are sorry but they have unfortunately decided not to accept my work on this occasion, then I am sorry but I have unfortunately decided not to accept their non-acceptance on this occasion. If my work is unfortunately not a good fit for them at this time, then the fact that it is not a good fit for them at this time is unfortunately not a good fit for me at this time. While this approach is yet to result in a publishing deal, it does mean that I can technically say, having rejected each rejection, that I have never been rejected. (One publisher did respon…