Darragh Ó Bradáin

That’s right, I got my first rejection email yesterday. I was on my way to see Toy Story 5 with my wife and children, and just before we entered the nearly-empty Screen 6, I got a lovely email from the editorial administrator of a well-known Irish publisher. I quickly glanced at it, told my wife I got a rejection, and continued on into the cinema.

The strange thing is, I was completely unfazed by it. I watched the movie, and forgot all about the email. It was only after I got home later that I remembered it and started thinking more about what I read.

It was a kind email. Nothing specific about “The One-Legged Head”, so it may have been a standard response. This is understandable, they must receive a massive amount of submissions every week. What I would have loved to know was whether “a lot to like” and “was widely discussed” was specific to me or whether it was a standard response. If it was the former, it’s lovely to hear it. If it was the latter, it’s a pity, but I’ll move on. I submitted it to an agent in the UK, too, so I’ll await that response before I submit anywhere else.

A friend told me yesterday that I could wallpaper my house with the rejection letters I’ll receive. This is reassuring, as he now has a few books published and has had loads of rejections. Maybe I’ll get lucky and an editor somewhere will love something I wrote. That’d be nice. But in the meantime, I’m loving the process too much to let anything else bother me.