My second book, a memoir of a father-sons road trip after a revelation about my father’s father, ANY ROAD WILL TAKE YOU THERE, was rejected 32 times. I had an agent and she said, “You are getting the best rejections I’ve ever seen.” What she meant was that publishers liked the story and the writing, but had already published a recent “travel” book, or one about fathers and sons, or had had its fill that season of memoirs, or some other non-writing reason. The lesson is, yes, sometimes the rejections are about the story and your writing, and a heads-up to redraft, but sometimes it has nothing to do with your writing and only to do with the market and the business of books.

BTW- The book was finally published. But after I fired the agent. Not her fault. But it was ironic.