Tenacious Tuesday

te·na·cious/təˈnāSHəs/Adjective

1. Not readily letting go of, giving up, or separated from an object that one holds, a position, or a principle: "a tenacious grip".


2. Not easily dispelled or discouraged; persisting in existence or in a course of action: "a tenacious legend".

Ride that query train! RIDE!

How do you get your novel published?  You hold on for dear life and send it out.  You get rejections.  You send it out again.  And again.  And again. 

Kathryn Stockett's The Help was turned down by 60 agents before finding its champion.  Ms. Stockett knows how it feels to start keeping the news of more rejections from family and friends.  She even started lying to her husband!  But she didn't give up, and now she has a best seller!

Here's what another best selling author, Janet Evanovich has to say about having tenacity:

Q. What if I send my book to a lot of agents and none of them wants to represent me?



JANET: If being a writer is important to you, keep at it, keep improving, and don't give up. I wrote three books that were never published. I sent the first one out to everybody. I went through every agent and publisher in New York, twice. The only positive letter that I got back was from an agent, but it was written in purple crayon on a bar napkin, so I didn't follow up on it. Then, presto, ten years later I was a published author.


 
If Ms. Evanovich can go ten years, have three unpublished books, and query every agent in NYC twice - I think we can all hang on and keep going without tossing aside our dreams of one day being a best selling author.
 
Those are only two examples of authors with enough tenacity to keep pushing beyond the rejection and coming out the other side with a best selling book in hand.  Take inspiration from these ladies and don't give up!