Handling Rejection

I won't lie to you. The cartooning business is filled with rejection. If you can't handle constant rejection, you should try another career.

I've written tens of thousands of cartoon gags over the years. These gags have circulated to many, many cartoonists, been rejected again and again, been revised again and again, and hopefully, someday, maybe, will actually sell. Sometimes a gag will sell that has circulated for over ten years. And then there are other gags you send out and they're bought almost immediately. Such is the ironies of the cartooning business. Anyway, rejection is the norm.

I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said that rejection doesn't bother me. I can take repeated rejection of my writing. I really can. However, there are times when the constant rejection does get to me, especially if I think I wrote something BRILLIANT AND IT'S STILL REJECTED! It's like, 'What does this person WANT?' Don't they realize how much I'm TRYING...how much time I've put into this...how much this MEANS TO ME??? It's like the straw that broke the camel's back. I can take 15 rejections all in a row but when the 16th rejection comes...WATCH OUT! I can't deal with this anymore! Then I tell myself that I'm STILL A GOOD PERSON...EVEN IF THEY DON'T LIKE MY GAGS!

Of course, then, after a long bout of constant rejection and the urge to give up, a letter arrives with a check in it. Or an email arrives with news that something just sold! Then everything is right with the world again. My writing is good...THEY DO LIKE ME!

Does any of this kvetching sound familiar? How do you handle it? Tell me about it at gagsbyhelene@gmail.com.