here's the thing: rejection is the worst but *self-rejection* is the kiss of death in publishing. it is a beast only you can slay and banish and it’ll keep creeping up on you and tempting you to give up when things seem hopeless, and it is *on you* to tell it to shut the hell up.

realistic mitigating financial/systemic/personal setbacks aside, you are probably not where you are in your publishing journey in large part because self-rejection is an obstacle you haven’t quite learned to overcome yet, and it is imperative that, well, you figure out how to.

find a way to shut out those thoughts that maybe this is it, maybe you should give up. we all have these thoughts, trust me, i do, too. anyone who says they don’t ever feel this way, at any level of the game, is being laughably disingenuous.

do what you need to do to recalibrate: review and celebrate your progress thus far, call that friend who will give you *the talk* asap, refocus on your goals and adjust them for changing circumstance if need be, but *don’t let yourself get in your own way.*

it's so hard, i get it. but it won’t happen without a strong support system and a certain pigheadedness about your own talent, or how right your instincts are about deserving to be published, or how fantastic and worthy the books you’re pushing out on behalf of others are.