Sketchbook Saturday #3

You submitted one of your beloved projects to a publisher, you got rejected...Now what?

Hi y'all! 

Last week I submitted one of my graphic novel projects to an open story call at Kugali Media. I worked on the submission the whole day. It was a very baseline general submission with very minimal details and only text, not the best type of submission format for a graphic novel, but anyway. 

I poured in as much detail as I could. And I was vulnerable, this particular story is the first full story I've come up with and revised over and over with a audience in mind. and up until this moment I haven't shared much of the actually story outside artwork of the two main characters. 

About two days I got an email from the story editors at the Kugali Media team. And I was rejected. 

 The main feedback I keep focusing on was "there is nothing special about this story". The main story editor did say the story seemed well planned out, but there was nothing special. It followed the typical hero's journey. The story was 'cookie-cutter'. 

So what do you do when a story so precious to you, that you've been working on for almost 10 years, get rejected?  

You cry obviously. 

Ok ok, I was only sad for like a day and got an icecream to cheer myself up. 

But I'm taking their feedback into consideration, fixing my story and making a proposal to submit to more traditional publishing companies. Which my plan is to basically revise the story and draw out the entire graphic novel and submit it to an agent, which will take some time. 

Until I do that, which will probably be more towards the end of the year, I'm going to submit my artwork to more open calls. One of my new years goals was I was going to submit to as many open calls for art this year and I currently have two on my list. The first is the Kadokawa Wordless Manga Contest and the second the Forgotten Lands Magazine Volume 7 magazine, both with deadlines in mid-February. 

Overall I'm not going to give up on my dream of being an author/ illustrator. I realize that this is only the first of possibly many rejections I may face. There is a reasonable possibility I will get rejected from both open calls. But I'm already accomplishing something by submitting. And I hope to whoever is reading this you continue to work towards your goals as well! 

Thats all I got for this time around. Till next Saturday! 

Willow

P.S  Some things I currently love right now: 

Lavender Milk Tea - floral and relaxing, but has caffeine so I can drink it instead of coffee. 

Diary of Our Days At The Break (TV show) - A slice of life anime about a school club for recreational fishing. It's super cute and funny. You can watch it on crunchyroll.  

The snow - It's been really cold and snowy in New York lately. And yeah its cold but I'm really enjoying it being a snowy winter.