If there’s one thing a community of writers have in common, it is, unfortunately, the Rejection Letter Experience.
In an ideal world, after receiving the wisdom, practical advice and scholarly embrace of the authonomy community, you’d never have to go through rejection again.
Failing that, it’s good to know your rejection can now be put to good use.
We just heard that Bill Shapiro (editor of Other People's Love Letters) is looking for literary rejection letters, planning to publish them in a 2010 collection entitled, Other People's Rejection Letters.
From his press release: "Whether typed form letters or handwritten in a fit of rage, whether sent by text message, email, or scrawled in crayon, any kind of rejection is fair game ... If you have a letter, you can either send it to me or scan it (600 dpi, por favor) and then email it."
If you need more immediate satisfaction (and to know you're definitely not alone) check out the Literary Rejections on Display blog.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Other People's Rejection
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10 comments:
My personal favourite, from an editor that should have known, from the abundant evidence in front of him/her, that the book in question had been extensively re-worked and edited -with the input of some 300 people involved in the process:
"I would definitely keep reading, and keep writing and there’s plenty to be learned by going through this script and making some changes before moving into final draft territory. I would definitely try and work on your confidence in your prose and remember that the first few times you draft a novel you will want to do anything but get back to it, but it does get easier. I’m sorry that it’s not one that we would be able to take on at this stage but the very best of luck on Authonomy."
"Reworked and edited" is worlds away from "good enough for publication"...
I sent out a non-fiction book and got back, 'Sorry we do not accept fiction.'
Duh?
After eight months retention of a SCRIPT Little Brown/Virago headed their rejection letter with the wrong title saying they 'really enjoyed it'. Blake Friedmann made sure (while rejecting) to enclose a recommendation that I bought a copy of Carole Blake's book (although I had mentioned a reference to it in my submission!)Hope these anecdotes will name the authors of these rejection letters!
I am looking forward to garnering my own collection of poorly worded, blank (as in blank eyed stare), vague and generally meaningless rejections..... if you don't have any rejection letters, you haven't tried hard enough..... and I also believe in having a good horror story for dinner parties..... It's more fun that way.
So what happens if you send in your rejection letter and it gets rejected?
'Tis all well and good for those who have a drawerful of badly-worded 'thanks-but-no-thanks' clangers, but in this brave new world of electronic submissions, I've received exactly zero rejection letters. Most agents/publishers put up a 'due to the volume of submissions' excuse, but seriously, how hard is it to knock up a form e-mail?
My personal favorite rejection letters are the ones which say 'I really enjoyed your whatever, but I just didn't feel as passionate about your manuscript-blah-blah-blah and best of luck in finding an agent/publisher who will blah-blah-blah'. I've always had the feeling that the real subtext was 'OMG, I'd better keep this noncommittal for I will look like such a prat if you save this letter and do find an agent/publisher, and this manuscript turns out to be the Next Big Literary Thing'...
Celia Hayes
author "To Truckee's Trail" & "The Adelsverein Trilogy"
www.celiahayes.com
I received a rejection letter on a proposed series of three books. However, the name in the letter wasn't me, but it did mention my manuscript...I called the publisher and they were very kind and put an editor on. She remembered my proposal and said it was read by another editor. She said the editor was concerned about something in the proposal. The editor was nice enough to take my name and phone number, and she said would have the other editor call me when she returned from her holiday.
Okiegal
My stand-out rejection was from an Australian literary agent. Among other things, she criticised my inclusion of a prologue in the manuscript, stating that 'a good book doesn't need one.' Given that this was a fantasy novel, and as the presence of the prologue was her main complaint, I had a very strong urge to write back and query whether, despite the claims of her website, she'd ever actually read a fantasy book. But I refrained.
I also had a telephone rejection with another such agent, also claiming to specialise in fantasy, who'd never heard of Neil Gaiman. Such is the Australian genre-market, it seems! (Or maybe I've just had bad luck.)
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