Many years ago while scrolling through the vastness of the internet, I came across a blog about the Debutante Ball for authors. These women writers discussed their traditionally published debut novels, their launch parties and book signing events, their agents and editors, and the beautiful sisterhood they'd found at the Debutante Ball.
At the time, I was racking up agent rejections for my first novel. I felt like a scullery maid peering through a window into a Gatsby-style party where Beautiful People cavorted and ate caviar while I scrounged in the dust bin for orange rinds and crusts of bread.
I was discouraged, but I'd already started working on my second book, and I just knew this one would sell. This time I'd fly through those halcyon gates and enter the broad, sunlit uplands of The Published.
That second book did land me an agent. But it didn't sell. Neither did the third one. My agent left the business. I got a new agent and wrote a fourth book. That one didn't sell either. Neither did the next one.
I stopped reading about the Debutante Ball because it was too painful. I was starting to realize I might never be one of those debut authors with a traditionally published book. I eventually blocked all Facebook and Instagram notifications because it was too hard to read about all the three-book-deals and manuscripts sold at auction by writers who were not me.
Then my dad died and my heart broke and after more than ten years of writing with nothing to show for it I was done. I couldn't handle even one more rejection. I sent my agent the first 80 pages of my new book and she said the writing and the story were so strong she could sell it on proposal. This seemed crazy. No one wanted my completed manuscripts, so why would anyone buy one that was only half written? But I told her to do whatever she thought best. I asked her to contact me only with good news, not rejections, and I honestly assumed I'd never hear from her again.
A few weeks later, she called.
She'd sold my book on proposal, just like she said she would. And suddenly I was going to be a published author.
I write all this because there's a writer out there somewhere who's about to give up. Someone reading this Substack is one rejection over the line and ready to throw in the towel. And I am begging you not to give up. Take a break if you need to, but don't give up. You have no idea how close you are success, and you will only find success if you keep going.
Success isn't guaranteed, but failure is one hundred percent assured if you quit writing.
So if you've taken classes and workshops and examined novels you love to find out why you love them, if you've taken good advice when it's offered, and taken hard advice even when you don't want to hear it, if you do these things you will reach a point where your writing is just as good, and in some cases better, than the books you find on the shelves at Barnes and Noble.
And it still won't be enough.
This is hardest part of the entire journey. You will win awards and contests for unpublished writers. You will work so hard and craft a book that is so good. And it will still be rejected.
And when you reach that point, it isn't about your writing anymore. It's about endurance and timing. Enduring rejection until the right agent or publisher comes along to say yes.
Is this hard? Hell yes, it's hard. And that's why other people give up. But not you. You can't give up because this is why you were created. This is why you have that weird writer brain, the kind of brain normal people don't have. You were created to spin stories out of thin air, to create something from nothing at all.
You were created to write
So you'll keep going. You'll be rejected over and over and over again, and it will be awful. And you will want to quit. But don't quit. Because you have written a story that no one else can write. And that is why you are here.
My debut novel, Friends with Secrets comes out August 1.
If I can do it, you can too
Christine Gunderson is a former television anchor, reporter, and Capitol Hill press secretary, a suburban mother of three, and the debut author of Friends with Secrets, releasing August 1, 2024, from Lake Union.
She currently lives just outside Washington D.C. but grew up on a fourth-generation family farm in rural North Dakota. She loves Jane Austen, sailing, and Star Wars, and she can drive a tractor, a skill yet to be useful in her daily life.
It insightful to read about so many of the steps in the journey. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, what a great story! Congratulations on never giving up 👏👏👏👏