Help! They’ll hate my story. I can hear them now. ‘It’s lovely and so… you!’ Yes, they hate it.  Even if they say they don’t, can we believe them? At least, the verdict we get from an agent or competition judge will be honest. But honesty is cruel. No wonder new writers shudder when entering a major contest. Since 2009, many of the 3500+ contestants in the Writers’ Village * fiction award have asked me ‘Please be kind!’ Their terror is real. Why? If readers reject our story, they stomp on our soul. Here are seven defences against the terror of rejection. 1. Join the club! Virtually all authors who have left an enduring legacy were scorned in their debut years. It took Agatha Christie 23 attempts to get her first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles into print. Every publisher in London laughed at William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. Even J K Rowling had her new novel The Cuckoo’s Calling turned down by ten publishers before they discovered who had written i...