Tales of Rejection

Yet acceptance is all the sweeter when you have faced rejection several times. That is the life of the writer and illustrator. It seems all the great literature of the world has had to rise above a sea of rejection. These are only a few of the books and authors that have known rejection.

I personally have had dozens of rejections for my illustrations and it is difficult to take when you know you have something good, something worthy to offer and it isn’t recognized as valuable. It isn’t about reaching for fame or success, it’s about having a message and a voice that matters for the greater good.

In my own experience, I began sending my artwork to publishers once my kids all left home. I figure it was my turn to focus on me and my work. But I was rejected summarily. So I began creating greeting card designs. I figured to get published you had to start small and work your way up. But my cards were all rejected en mass. So I figured maybe if I create some poster designs; I mean posters are big right? And someone has to design them. But the posters were rejected everywhere. I began to be worried that my artwork was no good. We artists aren’t usually the most self-confident individuals.

To add insult to injury, all the rejections were form letters stating due to the volume of submissions, they could not send me a personal note, but the form letter was so they could respond in a timely manner. Also, most of them stated that my cards and artwork was too similar to submission they already had or that it didn’t fit their editorial needs at this time. I got so tired of seeing that particular sentence that I wanted to scream. Instead, I filed it away. I saved all of them. Mostly so that someday I could pull them back out and laugh at them. However, I didn’t feel much like laughing right then. I felt like I tried everything. What else was left to try?

Personally, I can’t take too much rejection in one helping. I only sent out 2 or 3 submissions per week knowing that more than three rejections in one week would send spiraling into a depression that wouldn’t be easy to dig myself out of. That’s when one day I received 3 rejections all in one day. Hard to take. I thought about sitting down and crying but instead, I got mad. I mean really. Reject me will ya? I reject you! I began talking to the form letters (a sure sign of instability on my part) and decided to reject them right back.

Later I started sending artwork along with small craft articles to children’s magazines. I had read that children’s magazines are always looking for craft projects that children can do with little or no adult supervision. I knew a few cute crafts and decided to write about them. Along with my illustrations, the articles got published. I moved on to little stories with illustrations and small history articles with my own illustrations. I’m not really a writer but I am not terrible at it, so the magazines were getting a two-for-one deal: author and illustrator. This could be how Maurice Sendak started.

As time goes on, I am encouraged by the many rejections I have received, knowing I stand in the footsteps of greats who have gone before; all of whom were also rejected. I binders full of rejections are numerous but don’t outnumber some who were rejected. So I continue to work toward the goal of so many before me; published author/illustrator.