In this #amwriting Write Big session, Jennie Nash discusses managing mindset during the submission process, sharing that her new book project is out with an agent in staged publisher batches and that rejections often arrive faster than acceptances because “yes” decisions take more time and coordination.
With four early nos, she feels encouraged because most responses cite familiarity with her and her work and affirm the project’s purpose, offering specific, non-boilerplate feedback.
She frames these nos as validation and useful information, emphasizes not relying on external approval, and urges writers pitching or on submission to treat rejections as fuel while focusing on enjoying the journey.
Transcript
Hey, it’s Jennie, and before we get to the episode, I wanted to let you know that the June cohort of Author Accelerator’s Book Coach Certification Program is now forming. This is a year-long training for people who love working with writers, helping them shape ideas, think clearly about their books, and move through the creative and emotional challenges of the writing process.
A lot of our students come from backgrounds in writing, editing, teaching, publishing, or coaching in other fields, and many of them are looking for work that feels more meaningful and more intellectually engaging and sustainable over time. If you’ve been curious about book coaching or wondered whether you might already have the instinct for this work, I’m hosting a free live webinar where I’ll walk through what book coaches actually do and how people begin building careers around it.
You can learn more at bookcoaches.com/webinar1. That’s the number 1. It’s bookcoaches.com/webinar1. I’ll put the link in the show notes, [00:01:00] too. Okay, now onto the episode
Hi, I’m Jennie Nash, and you’re listening to the #amwriting podcast, the place where we help writers of all kinds play big in your writing life, love the process, and stick with it long enough to finish what matters most. This is a Write Big session, where I’m bringing you short episodes about the mindset shifts that help you stop playing small and write like it matters.
Today, I’m talking about how to manage your mindset around the submission process. In a recent episode, I talked about how my recent book project is out on submission with an agent who’s new to me. She has three batches of publishers that she’s going to submit to, and as I speak to you right now, the first batch is out on submission.
Now, it’s a reality that usually the nos come in faster than the yeses when you’re pitching. If an acquisition editor knows that a project isn’t right for them, it’s [00:02:00] easy to say no. They might already know that they have something like this book on their list already, or they might know that it’s just not for them.
Getting to yes takes more time. An editor who’s interested in a project is going to have to make sure that their colleagues are interested in that project. They’re going to have to make sure that they have the money to offer. They’re going to have to think about which list it’s going to go on. There’s a lot more decisions that go into a yes, and so the yeses take a little longer.
So where I sit today is that we’ve had four nos, and the mindset shift that I’m talking about bringing into this process is that I’m actually thrilled with these nos. My agent is doing this fantastic thing where she has a spreadsheet that she shared with me, and she’s putting the reasons for the no in there, and presumably when we get yeses, she’ll put the yeses in there as well.
But right now, I can log in and I can see who has passed and what their reasons for passing [00:03:00] are. And I’m taking these nos to be really good news because three out of the four of them have mentioned me and my work. The editor knows me and my work. They’re familiar with what I’m doing out in the world.
They understand who I am and what I’m bringing to the table. And for me, that information is everything. It means that the work I’ve been doing has had an impact. It means that I’m in a good position to sell this book. It means that I understood my marketplace positioning well and understood the reason for this book well, and it just feels like validation.
I’m taking these nos to be validation. That’s the mindset shift. The other thing I’m seeing in these nos is a real validation of the need for this project. Even when they’re passing, people understand why it’s a necessary project. They’re saying that it resonates with them. They’re saying things about it that they personally love and that they know writers that they work with will love.
So I’m getting all this validation from these nos, and I [00:04:00] love that. I’m trying really hard with this project not to have external validation be the thing that drives me. I know my book is good, and I’m looking for a publishing partner who knows it’s good and who can help me bring it to life. I’m not waiting to be picked.
I’m not waiting for somebody to tell me that I get to do it. If none of these publishers are the right people and the right partners, I’m doing it myself. Nothing’s gonna stop me. So all of this information is just fuel for my understanding of my own project. This will be my 13th book, and I understand that I’ve been in this business and this process a whole lot longer than a lot of people who are listening to this podcast, and I want to share with you this mindset that I have and this journey that I’m on because it feels so good to be in the submission process with this mindset.
It’s fun. I know it sounds bizarre, but I love logging in and looking at these nos and seeing that validation because they’re not generic nos. They’re not [00:05:00] boilerplate nos. The work that I’m doing is making sense, and that is really everything. So if you’re beginning to pitch or you’re out on submission, I would love for you to borrow this mindset from me and to find a way to turn the people who are saying no to you into fuel for the journey and inspiration to keep going.
That’s how I’m taking it, and I would love for you to borrow a little bit of that, too. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in this submission process. Nobody does. But I feel really good about how I’m going through it, and we have to feel good about the journey as well as the destination. That’s what writing big is all about.
Until next time, stop playing small and write like it matters.
The #amwriting podcast is produced by Andrew Parrella. Our intro music, aptly titled [00:06:00] Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output because everyone deserves to be paid for their work.
