I finally sold this year, after many, many, many years of writ­ing and query­ing and get­ting rejected. When that mag­i­cal moment came, I was thrilled. I’d finally achieved my dream. I’d made it. My work was good enough, I was smart enough, and dog­gone it, peo­ple liked me. And I wouldn’t get rejected anymore. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

I went on a day trip this week to do some shop­ping and take in the sights over in Asheville, N.C. (A lovely, bohemian town, for any­one who’s think­ing about vis­itng.) While I was there, I went into a few book­stores to give them my busi­ness card, ask about sign­ings, chat up the locals, you know the drill.

One guy was very friendly. Asked me how long I’d been writ­ing, etc., etc., etc.

But the other woman I talked with not friendly at all. She looked at my card for maybe half a sec­ond before say­ing that she’d need to see a copy of my book to deter­mine if it was right for the store. That was it. End of dis­cus­sion. We talked for less than a minute.

She runs a book­store. I write books. Seems like a nat­ural fit to me. But appar­ently not.

But her cool recep­tion reminded me of all those rejec­tions I use to get. The ones that are form let­ters or where your name and book are so badly mis­spelled that you won­der if the agent even both­ered to read it.

Her rejec­tion depressed me. At least, until I went to this fab­u­lous lit­tle choco­late shop. It’s amaz­ing what truf­fles can do to restore you.

A cou­ple of pounds of choco­late later, I’ve decided not to let it bother me. It’s just another part of the author game. I’ve got­ten hun­dreds of rejec­tions. What are a cou­ple hun­dred more?

What about you? Have you ever been rejected by a book­seller? How do you cope with it? Inquir­ing minds want to know …