on rejection

I don't I write about rejection much ... Today I had one. I'd sent off a book proposal on transcription to a publisher. I'd not heard back in over a month so that delay was a harbinger (love that expression from Douglas Macbeth) of the bad news to come. It was in my work email box this morning. I kind of wish I hadn't opened it today as I have quite a lot of work to do and rejection doesn't really engender the rallying of a lot of energy (smile). However, and the point of the post, if I can't handle the rejection and do something with it then I might as well not be in the game. The editor's feedback - brief - was that the focus (transcription in education research) was too narrow a focus to market. He probably wouldn't think that if he took a look at some of the weird and unsystematic transcripts that are produced in education research. Still, I take the point. I will think now about widening the focus to transcription in qualitative research (something that I toyed with constantly anyhow when putting together the proposal). The final thing I want to say about rejection, before getting on with my life, is that it is hard to handle when a lot of work and thinking has been injected into the writing (be it a book proposal or journal article). It seems like an awful waste and represents, for me, a lack of progress. I don't want to say a waste of research time, however, if I don't turn around the rejection of the proposal in some way then it will have been a waste of time.