Since beginning my querying journey in late August, I have sent 10 queries and received 3 form rejections. While this is to be expected, when the third rejection came in last week, I could feel myself getting discouraged. I felt like I should abandon querying completely in favour of starting the process of self-publishing. However, after talking it over with my partner and some friends, I concluded that this would be a premature reaction.
While self-publishing could very well be the avenue down which I take my book, I have not given my quest for a literary agent nearly enough time. I am a very impatient person (likely an understatement), and because of this, I was trying to expedite the process instead of giving everything time to breathe. I'm going to wait until at least January before making any decisions regarding self-publishing.
This is yet another lesson in giving things a chance and not shifting gears prematurely. I may need to be reminded again, as my memory in this department appears to be regrettably short-term. Perhaps writing about it here will help my cause.
Do you ever try to rush through things or change course out of the desire to push onward?
Yes