After deciding that I had procrastinated enough, and that I had re-written my query letter about twenty too many times, I sent it out to four agents via e-mail. I regretted it each and every time I pressed the send button on my e-mail. The amazing part of this story is that within twenty-four hours I had a response from three of the four agents asking for a full ms. For days I could hardly speak. I became so nervous I wished no agent had ever asked for my manuscript to begin with.
A few weeks later, and I am now a writer with a broken heart. Two of the agents have said “Thank you, but no thank you.”
Yes – I know – we are not supposed to take rejection personally.
I tell myself I am now officially a writer – after all, I’ve been told that you can’t be a writer without experiencing rejection, and lots of it!
We all know the stories of the bestselling award winning authors who faced rejection:
Last winter I won a literary award for a short, and after the initial thrill, I was dismayed – I would be expected to perform from now on like an award winning writer. It felt much the same way when I was asked for a full ms – uh oh – I wrote a great query – but can my novel live up? I have decided the answer is yes. I am just going to have buckle down, roll up my sleeves (yes – I just used two cliches!) and get hard at work.
In the meantime, I’ll try to enjoy my status as a rejected fiction writer. (And, I’ll be holding out for that third agent…)
jennifer neri 
Good for you! Keep going and don’t give up–one of my proofreaders told me that Tom Clancy was rejected over a hundred times before someone finally signed him for Hunt for Red October!