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Joined: 3/18/2013
Posts: 3
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So, rather than approach a publisher directly, I chose to solicit a literary agent. I got my first rejection letter (I only sent 1) on May 18th and it was just the kick I needed to get me interested in my book again. I reworked the first few chapters and now I'm hoping for some new feedback from other members. I feel like I have invested a great deal of time and taken a fair emotional toll with all my efforts. I really don't want it to be for nothing but I am finding it hard to decide that for myself, so I guess I could use a little help. My book title is Sanctity and I have just rewritten and posted the first two chapters.
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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Even though the rejection letter sucks, congrats on making it past the writer's rite of passage.
I'm impressed with your motivation. I wallowed for awhile after my first rejection. I'm glad that it inspired you to get back to the book.
If it helps:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/05/16/publishers-who-got-it-wrong_n_1520190.html#slide=977921
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/11/famous-authors-harshest-rejection-letters/248705/
Best,
Brandi
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 222
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My latest rejection was pretty funny -- it was a rejection on a request for a full.
The agent said he wasn't sure if he'd be able to sell the book because of the world building. Then he said, in the same letter, next paragraph, he'd love if I could prove him wrong.
After one of my editing clients peeled me off the ceiling (which is now stucco due to my rabid gnawing), I threw my hands up in the air, made faces, and did the classic "Challenge Accepted."
Unfortunately for him, when I get the book sold or self-published, he's not getting a piece of that pie...
Why get mad when you can wave a fist, shout "Challenge Accepted!" and keep trucking?
Good luck with your novel. Rejections can be tough, but if you want to write, they're only good -- they make you try harder, do better, and separate the hobbyists from the professionals.
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I went through 39 rejections before I sold Midnight. Hang in there.
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Joined: 3/4/2014
Posts: 18
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I am about as ambivalent as as a metronome when it comes to rejection letters. I've gotten a few on various work. One did stimulate my mind concerning a picture book story for children. Publishing house said, "this story is really cute, but we cannot use it at this time." It was a seasonal book, but not really. One rejection letter wanted to introduce me to an agent. I wrote, he wasn't interested.
The other side of the metronome is self publishing. I've tried that as well. I was not pleased with the product and pulled the book from production after about fifty copies were sold. Amazingly, used copies of my first publishing effort are still selling on the internet for between 30 and 50 dollars. I guess you could call that a cult following to a minor degree. No matter which way you try to move your manuscript to the general public, there will have to be personal effort, (book signings ect.) made to make a name for yourself. There are two main reasons folks want their books to be a hit. Fame and money. If you don't care about fame, then that leaves the obvious other, and that's enough to keep you in there plugging away. --edited by Rob Emery on 4/2/2014, 12:55 PM--
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Joined: 9/17/2013
Posts: 104
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In my proposal for a short story collection I let the first publisher know that I was a personal acquaintance of one of his star authors, which was nearly true, and I knew that the author was too polite to dispute it if called. Maybe that had something to do with the encouraging tone of the rejection. He said something like, "I can't see a way to make any money on these stories, but somehow they have to be in print." He was telling me not to change the stories, just to find someone with a different business model. A valuable lesson.
The second publisher has a different business model, and was happy to take the book, and the second book too.
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