>Swiss Chocolate was rejected 37 times before it got picked up. It took four years. This is relatively small compared to some I've heard about. Steven King's first book was rejected 32 times before it got picked up. Some writers never get published.
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>By the way, I also work for my agent as an associate reviewer, so I read a lot of manuscripts. The one thing I have discovered about the publishing world is that being good has nothing to do with getting published when it comes to fiction. Editors are very subjective when they evaluate manuscripts. I've had editors contradict themselves with their critiques of my work, and some of the wacky rejections we get for our writers really make me scratch my head sometimes.

Does it hurt? Sitting on both sides of the fence at the same time, I mean.

I was in a similar situation, once - when it was me, the co-owner of the business, exploiting me, the worker...