Today is a writing post.

So here’s the deal… I’m writing this post on 11.20, just a few days after the big HQN announcment about their new ‘self-pub’ venture, Harlequin Horizons (HHz)(UTA…Harlequin Horizons is now Dellarte Press).

I use ‘self-pub’ lightly because from what I can tell, it’s not true ‘self pub’.  It’s vanity press…as in the writer pays a huge chunk up front and then still split the profits with the vanity press.  Self pub?  Writer fronts the costs, keeps the profits.

So I’m writing this with all the brouhaha of HHz still living large in my mind.

One of the things that does bother me about HHz is how they’re targeting the authors they rejected.  As in… it doesn’t work for HERE, but try here… now you’ll pay us, but you could still be a star.

A lot of inexperienced writers who are just now trying to find their way?  They could look at this as a way of bypassing that rejection.  Skipping the slush pile.  Taking the easy way.

Here’s the deal.

There is no shortcut.

There is no way to bypass the rejections.

Getting out of the slush pile takes a lot of hard work.  It takes a lot of persistence.  In short…it’s not a quick thing and there is no short cut.

And there shouldn’t be.  Rejections make a writer better.  They suck, trust me, I know.  Even when a book seems downright perfect for the publisher you were shooting for.  Originally, I’d written HER BEST FRIEND’S LOVER for HQN/Silhouette.  It was rejected.  I decided to heat the story up and send to EC.  EC accepted.

Now, even though, looking back?  I think the story would definitely have worked for HQN-I’m glad I didn’t just let it sit.  I’m glad I didn’t sulk.  Or give up. And actually, I’m even glad HQN rejected it.   I needed that rejection…even though I think the book, as it originally was, probably would have been a great fit with HQN, if it had been accepted? I’m not sure I would have taken the route I’m on now.

Before I started writing with EC, I wrote ‘safer’, very traditional romances.  I didn’t take the risks I learned to take at EC.  At a larger house, and as a newer author, I don’t know that I would have been able to take those risks.  With EC, I could.  With EC, I found my voice…not the voice I might have developed writing safer stories.  I built enough of a readership at EC that when I hooked up with Berkley, I’d proven I could write romances that weren’t exactly safe…and still do fine.

We need the rejections.  As writers, we need them.  Even though they suck, they often force us to reevaluate and learn and improve.   And those rejections also prepare us for the hard road ahead.  Because trust me…it doesn’t get any easier after you sell a book.  Or five.  Or ten.  In my case?  This biz isn’t any easier even after fifty+.

Don’t give up because you got a rejection.  And don’t look for a shorter path to publishing.  Find your path…because that’s where you’ll find your true voice, your true stories.