We all get them - rejections. I've heard Stephen King received hundreds of
them. Recently I received a whole fistful. Sometimes I feel like they're
little demons, giggling in my ear. When I receive four or five in a day,
they become monsters, growling over my head.

 I don't know about you, but I keep all my rejections in several folders.
(yes they are almost all full). Every so often I go back and re-read some of
them. Why didn't that editor love that story? What does she mean there's no
sexual chemistry? Need to pick up the pace? Too much set up? AAHH. It goes
on and on.

 But wait. When I go back through and read that manuscript, maybe the
editor was right. Maybe I did spend a page describing the setting instead of
moving the story along. Okay, so I'm forcing the chemistry between the two,
but I was in a rush to edit this and get it out the door. And this is a
romantic suspense. The pace should be quick. Oh, all, right, the editors
made some valid points in those rejections.

 Okay, what is my point? Maybe this is a good time to go back through those
 rejection letters you've received. Look for the value in them. That sounds
like  a hard lesson, but I find every time I re-read an old rejection (except
for  the form letters) I learn something.

 Let me tell you about one thing that really woke me up. Twenty years ago
(yes, it was that long ago) I decided I wanted to be a romance writer. I
joined  RWA, which was just in its beginnings; I even attended some of the first
 conferences. And I sent in my submissions on my brand new Selectric
 typewriter-my  first big writing expense.

 And I got rejected then, too. And discouraged. After about five of those,
I  gave up.
 I stopped sending in my queries. Stopped going to conferences, dropped my
 membership in RWA. No more rejections came in the mail.

 But a funny thing happened. My writing never stopped. I continued that.
 Years went by and I was writing and enjoying it, but there was something
 lacking. So what if there were typos, or if the story went nowhere. I kept
 writing.
 But I still wanted more.

 One day, while cleaning out my old file cabinet for one of my many moves,
I ran across those old rejection letters. What was this? Buried below the
 paragraph rejecting my full manuscript was the sentence This doesn't work
for us, but please feel free to send future projects. I don't remember reading
that, back then, only seeing the rejection. Another letter asked for a revision
of my work-which I never sent. Yet another letter said Your story has merit.
We'd be interested in seeing more. What was I expecting, to sell on just that
 proposal? Why didn't I ever finish that and send it? It was that first rejection- too 
painful to get over that quickly. Maybe I feared another
rejection with the new manuscript.

 It took years to get over that, but finally I realized I still wanted my
work published. It wasn't doing anyone any good piling up in folders on my
 shelves or on computer disks. I began studying the markets again-and
discovered things had changed a lot in the twenty years I was away. I felt like I was
starting all over, but I took a deep breath and began sending out my query
 letters and proposals.

 Now the rejections have started to arrive again. But this time I'm not
 giving up. I'm using my rejections, looking for nuggets that can help me
improve my writing. I'm taking the editors' advice--picking up that pacing. Moving
that story along. Working on improving that sexual chemistry.

 One more thing. All those file folder of rejections? They're proof that I
refuse to give up. And that's what I tell those demons when they're
giggling in my ear or growling at me.

_____________________________________________________________________
 Becky Martinez is an award-winning former broadcast journalist living in
 Aurora, Co, who is currently working in public relations and finishing two
new books. Her romance LOVE ON DECK is now available from Wings ePress and two
more of her romances will also be published by Wings. Her short story "The Problem" 
appeared in the anthology JUST IN TIME published by Wings ePress,
and another short story will soon appear in the anthology TROUBLE WITH
ROMANCE, to be published by Treble Heart Books.

 The following article appeared in the Heartbeat of Denver Romance Writers
Newsletter. Permission to use with proper credit.