A writer has to be very strong willed.  There are many factors that can break a writer’s spirit especially during the novice years.  Rejection letters are usually the main culprit.  I have received my share of rejection and I know that it’s hard on the soul.  Imagine someone calling your child ugly directly to your face.  That’s what it feels like if you haven’t already experienced it.  Writing is a personal being; it’s a part of you.  Because of this, it’s hard not to take the common rejection letter personally.

You have to believe in yourself and stand behind your own work.  It’s going to be hard but try not to take rejection letters so personally.  Remember that rejection doesn’t necessarily mean that your story was bad.  It might not have met the editor’s concept.  Perhaps the market is low for the kind of genre that you choose the write.  The publisher’s main goal will be to make money.  If they don’t think that your story will interest a lot of people they will reject it even if it’s good.

Here’s a list of famous authors and the number of times that they were rejected.  This list will definitely give you the courage to pick yourself up, dust off your pen and keep writing.

7,000   William Saroyan
140   Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
38   Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
30   Carrie by Stephen King
26   Watership Down by Richard Adams
22   Dubliners by James Joyce
20   The Kon Tiki Expedition by Thor Heyerdahl
16   The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter
15   The Enormous Room by EE Cummings
(Cummings self-published this, his first work, now rated a masterpiece, dedicating it to the 15 publishers who had rejected it.)
12   Harry Potter by JK Rowling
(Rowling is vague on the number of rejections she got, saying, “I’m not sure if it was a dozen, but it was plenty…”)
7   The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
(Potter finally published it herself.)

* This list was found on lulu.com