OK, you have written a piece of work that you are rather proud of , you send it off to a potential publisher, and a week later, they send you a rejection slip. Undaunted, you send it off to a few other publishers down the list, but most of them come back rejected. Some of them don't even get a reply. So, how do we as writers cope with all these rejections?

1. View it as part of the writing process

No single writer gets accepted all the time. All of us have gotten rejected at some point in time before. Some of us more than others. But it's a fact that writers will get rejected sooner or later. But it's also a fact that if you are a decent writer, you'll get accepted sooner or later. There just aren't that many decent writers around to monopolise the market.

So view getting rejected as part of the process. Set a number, say, 50. Now tell yourself that for every 50 rejection slips you get, you'll get one accepting you. Now the rejection slip is no longer just a rejection slip, but something you have to collect before you get accepted. It's part of the process of getting accepted. Sometimes you'll get more than the number you set, sometimes less. Eventually, you'll realise that it's true that you do get accepted for every n number of rejection slips you collect. So now tell yourself that you have to collect n number of rejection slips before you get accepted.Of course once you become more experienced as a writer, and have learnt to grasp what publishers want, n should get smaller.

2. Join a writers' group

Part of what makes the pain of getting a rejection slip so unbearable is that generally, we writers don't work in offices, where we can share stories of how this was unbearable, or how that guy was obnoxious with ther person working in the next cubicle, and who understands what we're going through because we are working in the same environment. We tend to view that rejection slip as personal, as happening to me, to have been singled out for rejection. Joining a writers' group allows us to share our stories with people who are going through the same process as us. Your writers' group can not only reassure you that you are not the only one getting rejected, but even share with you how they personally coped with getting rejected.

3. Know that even famous writers got their fair share of rejections

I know I mentioned that all of us writers have gotten rejected at some point in time. But it's likely that there are some of you who won't be convinced until I throw some figures at you. So, here's the number of times some famous writers got rejected

J.K Rowling submitted the manuscript for her first book, Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone to 12 publishing houses, all of which rejected her.Finally, after a year of looking for publishers, she got accepted by Bloomsbury.

Richard Bach's Johnathan Livingston Seagull got rejected 41 times.

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind was rejected 38 times.

C.S Lewis received over 800 rejections before he sold anything.

So, to my fellow writers out there, keep submitting and you'll get accepted eventually

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