Guest Post by @RyanJoSummers, author of Upon the Tide #romanticsuspense #giveaway

Today I’m welcoming Ryan Jo Summers, author of the romantic suspense novel, Upon the Tide, to the Readsalot blog. She’s talking to us about rejections and turning a no into a yes.

 Rejections. Every writer gets them. They’re a part of our rite of passage. Most of us—me included—have collected enough rejections to sufficiently wallpaper our home. Naturally we all hope we won’t be rejected. After all, we just wrote the next 52 straight week bestseller. Right? We dream of sending our literary baby to our first picked publisher where it will be exclaimed over like our bundle of manuscript joy rightly deserves. After much attention, they will send us a contract and a hefty advance check. Ah… this is so cool.

Yes it is, and it’s also seldom—almost never—played out that way. The reality is we write our best (not necessarily the best) story and send it out to a whole list of agents, editors and publishers—and wait anxiously. If we’re lucky, we hear something back with a polite form letter. Thanks but no thanks. Sometimes we don’t even get that much. If we are really lucky, we might receive a short note alongside the standard rejection form. If you get this—rejoice, dear author. Yes, rejoice.

There are many ways to view rejections. Here is my method: First, I see it as an inevitable part of this job. Like a doctor who unavoidably loses a patient or the lawyer who occasionally loses a case, bad things will happen in every career. This is one that happens with being an author. Next, I don’t take it personal. This is nothing more than one person’s opinion. And didn’t I ask for their opinion by sending my manuscript to them?

There could be a myriad of reasons why it was rejected. Maybe it was full of typos, bad grammar and other issues I didn’t catch through ten rounds of edits and proof reading. (Yes, it happens) Maybe the hero’s name was the same as the editor’s significant other that just unceremoniously dumped her last night. Maybe it’s really a bad story. Maybe it’s a genre she doesn’t accept. Maybe she just listed one very similar to mine. Maybe this kind of story just isn’t selling anymore.

However, if I get a rejection with an extra note included, I take notice. Someone took a few additional minutes to write me a special thought. Perhaps something I can work on improving. It’s even better if it’s an invitation to either rework the story and resubmit or to submit something else. Yes, it has happened.

Here’s the thing about rejections—every writer get them, even the master artists. Smart writers collect them in a pile and keep plugging away, knowing one day we’ll get an acceptance instead of a rejection. It just takes time.

When I first submitted my debut contemporary romance “Whispers in her Heart”, it was rejected over a dozen times. Mostly because it was a horrible story. Years later, I re-wrote it and sent it back out. The third publisher sent me an acceptance offer and contract. That was seven books and three more contracts ago. And I still get occasional rejections. That’s okay, because there is usually something to learn from each one.

~ About the Book ~

Title: Upon the Tide

Author: Ryan Jo Summers

Published: May 18, 2016

Genre: Romantic Suspense

~ Synopsis ~

Tossed together by happenstance, fleeing for their lives and finding love under the Caribbean sun as paradise turns deadly.

New York fashion designed, Piper Kincaid, just wanted to have a pleasant visit with her cousin down in Florida. That was before she and handsome beach bum, Kade Wyatt, become the targets of a gang of robbers and killers. Fleeing for their lives, aboard Kade’s big boat, they experience risk, surprises, mystery and romance during the Great Caribbean Boat Chase. However, the biggest surprises are waiting for them back at port.

Grab a copy! Amazon

~ About the Author ~

Ryan Jo Summers is a North Carolina writer who likes to pen romances with a twist. Love stories blended as inspirational, with paranormal, suspense or time travel–or several at once. She also writes non-fiction for regional periodicals. Her dad is a songwriter and his aunt wrote poetry, so Ryan came by the writing gene honestly.

Her hobbies include poetry, bird watching, houseplants and gardening, gathering with friends, hiking in the forest, painting canvas and ceramics, and working wiggly word find puzzles, mah johngg or chess. She lives in a 1920 cottage with a menagerie of pets. She often daydreams of the shore and frequently uses water as settings and several animals in her stories.

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 ~ Giveaway ~

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