Sweater Sets

So, still sick. Sucks.

Anyway, Larissa Ione has a great post over at her blog called “The Sweeter Side of Rejection,” which I originally read as “The Sweater Side of Rejection,” which is probably because I’ve got Sweat on the brain, what with the 70 days and all.

I digress. Happens when you’re feverish.

As I was saying, Larissa’s post is fabu. She says all kinds of great stuff about how rejections suck and dealing and etc., but the following was especially enlightening:

I look back now and thank my lucky stars that no one bought me back then. Okay, stop looking at me like that. I’m not crazy. Really… [snip]

When I take a look at what I write today, I’m amazed at how much my voice has changed and how much I’ve learned. Mostly, I write paranormals, but even my contemporary works have evolved. I LOVE what I’m writing now, and I LOVE who I’m writing for.

Had I sold way back then, I’d be miserable right now. I wasn’t ready to be published now matter how badly I wanted it.

This is a really good point, and one that I haven’t see stated a lot. Please read the whole essay. I also really think this is an “only in hindsight” thing. You won’t know it’s an “under the bed” book when you are working on it. You can’t, or you’d just chuck it and move on. You wouldn’t go through that necessary development.

My earlier books weren’t ready. Didn’t know it then. Was very frustrated with the whole rejection experience. But now that I know what it takes to actually bring a book to publication, how much you need to love it to work through all those stages, how many rejections you face with your work AFTER it’s published, the whole experience of book publication, I have a tough time imagining doing it with some of my earlier works. Like Larissa, I LOVE what I’m writing now, and I don’t know if I would have been writing it had I sold my earlier books.

Now I’m going back to bed.