Rejection Introspection
By Kathleen Bolton | December 28, 2007 |
Originally posted September, 2006.
The rejection letter is the writer’s cat-o’nine-tails, the scourge of the brotherhood. Everytime I get one, I imagine that scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the one where the monks are bashing their heads in with the alpha and omega of their existence, the bible. I get bashed pretty regularly too. No pretty music, though.
Rejection letters used to cut me up something fierce. But after 20 or so, that pain ain’t no thang. Hell, now they amuse me. I’ll share a few gems out of my file, maybe they’ll make someone feel better today.
The lamest: a form rejection letter Xeroxed so many times, the font was breaking apart, and the space where the name of the author would go had been painted over with White-Out. It was from a big-name agency too. You’d think they’d care about their reputation just a smidge and have the admin assistant reprint a fresh one. Oh, I forgot. They don’t give a damn about what I think. Just like they didn’t give a damn about what I wrote.
The most surprising: three years after I’d mailed the partial and followed up a few times I got a hasty scrawl apologizing for the long time between the request and the rejection. “Though I loved your style, I felt [NAME OF BOOK] wasn’t right for me.” Hon, that train already left the station and was pulling into Georgia.
The “Hates to Say No” award goes to the editor who detailed in three meaty graphs what she loved about it. Then, “ultimately, I didn’t love it enough to be an editorial champion. Best of luck….” Then there’s the assorted “too leisurely”, “too frenetic” (yeah, same book), “not commercial enough” (e.g. not a rip-off of a mega best-seller), “don’t want the challenge of publishing this in today’s market” (explain again why are you an editor?), “I didn’t like it” (that I get).
I could go on. I suspect you could, too. The point is most writers have to be rejected before they can be accepted. Some writers get it right the first try. Lucky them. The rest of us have to slog it out. Or give up.
What are you going to do?
That’s right. I’m getting back to work, too.
Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She writes under a variety of pseudonyms, including Ani Bolton.
She has written two novels as Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter–both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President’s teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins, and Tamara Blake, for the novel Slumber.
Rejections only fuel me to keep trying. One person’s trash is another’s treasure, so to speak, and I just haven’t hit the one who thinks it is a “treasure.”
Hello Kathleen,
Every writer I know has gone through this. I have rejections from 200 or so agents so far and I’m still counting. Another finally published author I know went through 400 agents before he got a contract. And look at Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul)- his book was rejected by 250 publishers before one said, “Let’s give it a shot.”
Most of the rejections are form letters like you said copied hundreds of times. However, I did receive a handwritten letter from one agent and I was amazed. Unfortunately, the content was from a form letter and it did not shed any light on why she felt my work was not right for her.
In any event, the personalized rejection letters (not the form letters) can take the temperature of your work. Most of the time you have to read between the lines to get the information, but I find it is a good reading.
For example, if an agent is really excited about your query letter and asks for a partial, then rejects your work, it could be your writing that didn’t appeal to them.
If the agent says “not right for them” or “I don’t think I could sell this” it may mean the market is already flooded with similar stories. Good agents talk to publishing house editors all the time and the editors tell them what is selling and what is not. I know of one agent who said that sometimes she has to reject wonderful work because it would not sell.
Still don’t take this advice as the absolute truth – it is still only the agent’s opinion and another agent may think your work is fantastic.
Getting published is a matter of:
– Good writing
– A good storyline that is not overdone or has a new twist.
– Timing – the market is reading your genre or type of story
– Luck in finding an agent who loves your work
In any event, keep trying.
Thank god I live in a small country. They’re starved for writers, so here you don’t get rejected as much.
But I guess it’s a matter of perseverance. Just because your work was rejected by “x” number of people, doesn’t mean it’s not good. Many times the most enjoyable books are not best-sellers.