Managing Rejection

Looking for internships and looking for jobs is really really tough. The publishing industry is better than most, I always sensed that there was a level of pity from colleagues. They had all been through it before.

The other frustrating thing, is that as with everything, the publishing world is about timing. Being in the right place at the right time. It is also about who you know. And interning is just a process of making sure you know as many people as possible.

But what is tough is the endless rejections. As with everything it's a numbers game. There are fewer and fewer publishing companies every year, as they get imprinted and swallowed up by the big fish. The ratio for your dream job is probably 3000:1 So you have to make sure that you are sending out more applications than ever. Which means more rejection letters than ever before.

It is very easy to get depressed about them piling up in your inbox. But regardless of how hard you tried on the cover letter or how perfect you would be for that job, someone is always better. it's disappointing. The only thing I can say is to try not to get bitter about it just move on to the next one.

It is usually the applications to the larger publishing houses that return with the most soul destroying emails. I won't name any random house-hold names...All you can do is apply again next time, with an even better CV and covering letter.

Over all you have to be positive to make a good impression. Try not to whine to people in the office, keep it to your friends and family (they HAVE to put up with your endless tales of woe).

Just keep playing the numbers game. An amazing job will come up. For all of us.

Mid Month Pep Talk

Dear Georgia,

Come on man, take a good hard look at your word count right now. You could be doing so much more. Stop whining and get on with it. Sure it isn't quality, but you really should just get the story down.

These characters have been sitting in your hard drive since you were sixteen and now you've given them a little airing, you owe it to your characters to finish their story. You've never finished a piece of fiction that is longer than about 5000 words. That is an atrocious record.

Once it was your ambition to be an author. The teenage urge to write beautifully and be told that you aren't a bad writer and have half of an imagination in your noggin is still in you somewhere. So dig deep and pull out that fighting spirit.

On the other hand. LOOK how far you've come! You've written more this month than you have in your whole life. Your focus is awesome. Don't do it now...but look forward to December because you are about to have SO much fun editing this.

You can still finish this.

You can win.