What's the point?

I've been reading a lot of tweets this week about writers struggling with the publishing industry and their mental health.  Some of the writers I follow suffer from depression, and have periods when they don't feel able to work.

That got me thinking about how engaging with the industry affects my own moods.  Thankfully, I've never suffered from depression.  I have my down days, and I've often suffered from periods of 'what's the point of doing this?'  I especially got to that point last year with my hundred short story submission target.  I was often bad-tempered for days after a tranche of rejections.

The problem with submitting to agents and editors is that there's no 'right answer' which will automatically bring you success,  submitting to an agent is engaging with one of those most complex of things, a human being.  One with their own beliefs and values, quirks, likes and dislikes.  And no matter how comprehensive their blurb on the agency's website, most of that data is hidden.  Their public faces go only a short way to telling you how they really think.

Submitting is shoving your work into a mysterious black box, without knowing the rules of its operating system.  It's whistling in the dark, however much research on that agent or editor you do.  That's frustrating, but the downers come when you get the rejection.  The ones I particularly hate are "I didn't fall in love with it as much as I expected to."  What the hell does that mean?  Translation: I don't believe it will sell well enough,

Agents will tell you their evaluation process is about 'the quality of the writing'.  But in truth it's more about a belief in whether that person can sell the book or not.  That's when the 'What's the point of this?' blues kicks in.  

And then I read something on Twitter that lifts my mood.  This week it was a tweet by an agent who had requested a rewrite and resubmit of an author's manuscript.  The writer said no, and found another agent who accepted the manuscript as it was.  And subsequently sold the manuscript as it was.

This author's rebellion paid off, and cheered me up no end.  So what's the point?  The point is to find the right person, the person who gets me and accepts my work for what it is.  Back to it.