For three years, publishers would not touch the book, Banks said. She mailed the manuscript to the Council for Indian Education for only a critique, she said. It was returned three weeks later, and she was hesitant to open the envelope. She finally opened the envelope while cleaning her home for company and discovered a Xeroxed copy of the manuscript and a contract inside. Getting published is a difficult business that requires a writer to be stubborn in the face of rejection, she said.
Rejection is just painful.
You don't ever get used to it. Banks is thankful for the advice of friend, Raymond Andrews, who told her to keep writing when she could not get published. The idea was to establish a body of work to have when the publishers finally came knocking, she said. Andrews died four years ago. She thought her whole life would change, she said.