Well, I don’t always hate my job. I only hate it on the days I have to send rejection letters. Or maybe I should say, I only hate it during the moments of the day that I must send rejection letters.
If you receive a rejection letter either from my assistant or myself, you can count on a few truths:
- If we say you are talented, we believe it.
- If we say your work isn’t the right fit for us, you can believe it.
- If we say you can send us proposals in the future, you can take us up on that offer.
In fact, you can believe anything we say in our letters. We don’t search for excuses. If you think you’ve gotten a form letter, then your work has a similar reason for being rejected that it shares with many others.
Next time, I’ll elaborate on those reasons. But in the meantime, I want to assure you that writing rejection letters causes us much pain. Much more than you may realize. I have a writer’s heart, and I remember rejection of my own work all too well.
So please know that while I’m not able to take on every project I like and every author I adore, I do understand the heartbreak of rejection.
May many acceptance letters be in your future!
Your turn:
What was the most painful rejection letter you received?
What was the most encouraging rejection letter you received?
Should I Blog My Book?
Tamela,
I have spent the better part of a year getting to know agents, publishers, and other writers. It has been quite an education, following FB posts, tweets, and blogs.
I have come to the conclusion that every part of the process is a calling to be experienced by journey for a writer. That first novel (where I am at) is going to be my first love. Knowing my first love will be judged makes me work harder to make sure it is as close to exceptional as I can get to erase every doubt by agents about it becoming a best seller. That’s the creator in me talking.
Now I’m smart enough to know, if and when I get that first rejection letter after I release queries, it will be to make something better so it will become a best seller. Because in my heart, I know that first love will always be loved by me. No matter what anyone may say. And if I am blessed enough to earn a readership, they also will be my journey, walking with me and my characters.
It is an endearing quality to hear an agent, such yourself Tamela, be so transparent. In reading all your communications, I already knew these things about you because I have learned your character.
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge you, as an agent. We have not yet had the pleasure of doing business together, but you are a special person in your job. And if any writer knows your character, they will know if they ever receive a rejection letter from you, or your agency for that matter, it is a note of compassion to encourage further development and follow through on recommendations. And that should always be accepted with humility and determination.
Thank you for your words today.
Mark
Thank you, Mark. Now I have encouraging words to post on my bulletin board! Much appreciated.
Love this post…
My worst was ‘I cannot relate to your characters. Don’t ever submit again. Ever.’
Mildly dejected, I began to laugh and realized I needed a lot of work. I found critique partners who were happy to tear it apart. I’ve since become best friends with my harshest critique partner.
Fast forward four years. A wonderful Christian publisher rejected my work but gave me advice. I submitted it as a romance, however started it with the crime. She was gracious, said the writing was good, but said she couldn’t find the romance.
That led me to another revision. Then another. And… another. Completely different than my first-to-millionth rewrite/edit, and the fiction finally opened with the main character as opposed to the crime. I went through a beta group. They loved it/hated it (LOL) because of the twists. Went through a junior high school teacher (LOL once again) because I couldn’t afford an editor, and she had to stop editing so she could weep, laugh through the HEA for now.
That … led me to submitting my proposal to SLA in 2016, and then, the manuscript in 2017 (after I’d done some more revisions), an edit, and now awaiting the final word. But SLA was my finest hour, my smelling salts, and even if the manuscript is ultimately rejected, I will have made it to the best of the best (as far as I am concerned).
So … in summation, embrace rejections. Even when they don’t give feedback or poor feedback, it means (to me) that it hit the trash and I need to work on it.
Claire
What a wonderful story of perseverance! A teachable spirit will take you a long way, as you have seen!
Hi Tamela
🙂 thank you. The ‘waiting game’ is stretching patience even more. Which I figure God is still plowing through my heart.
But, I don’t know when to nudge on the manuscript (six months waiting? Is that yet too soon to expect an answer – i.e. rejection or acceptance?
Thank you!
Claire
I would love to hear an answer to this question, too, especially how long to wait for a response for a requested full manuscript submission from traditional publishers (unagented). Is six weeks too soon to send an email asking if it is still under consideration?
Hi Sonja,
I think six weeks isn’t long–you have to wait for readers, editors and the agent, each process could take longer than 2-3 months (each).
Same boat, same still waters, am I. ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures…’ Consider it rest as you work on your next project. ‘I shall not fear the shadow of death, for You are with me’ (rejection…? which rather feels like that.).
I pray you hear soon – (and me, too!)
Claire
Thank you for the encouragement, Claire!
The most encouraging rejection letter was a long email in which the agent seemed to be talking herself out of taking on my story the whole time. She told me so many things that she liked about it, and finally ended by saying that she thought “I was going places.” (She didn’t think she could place that particular story with a bigger publisher than I could myself, so she finally said no.
That phrase, “I think you’re going places,” has done more for my confidence level than she could imagine! I think it to myself when I’m asked for speaking gigs, and when I’m submitting myself once again to putting a new project out into the world.
A rejection letter that made me laugh? One that appeared FOUR YEARS after submitting the manuscript. The work in question was already published by someone else by that time! I felt sorry that I had forgotten to let them know that it had been taken on by a different publisher, but so much time had gone by that I never dreamed it was still under consideration!
Sometimes the decision is hard, as your experience shows. Ummm, I try not to take four years to respond!
Thanks for sharing!
Tamela, the hardest rejection letters to receive are those that do not say why the rejection was made. The most helpful ones suggest, however briefly, how to improve.
Sheri, you make a good point. When there is something helpful to say, such as, the manuscript doesn’t meet word count, that can work. But if my reasons are more subjective, such as, the story just didn’t grab me, then that might not be as helpful to an author. I do try to be helpful when I can, though.
Mine would be combined — a rejection that spurred me on to prove him wrong. I agree with Sheri’s comment, for one rejection about a devotional submission encouraged me try again and why.
Maybe a devotional on rejection might be in order!
I’m smiling. Also thankful that you did not edit my comment. 😉
Ha ha… I worry about that, too. I have a friend on Facebook who reads through my work looking for grammar (in my novels), Once, she corrected my spelling on Facebook — ha- and I check my spelling before I post. Too funny.
Claire
The worst is no response at all! I’ve followed Guidelines that suggest including a SASP to simply acknowledge receipt of a ms that were never mailed to me by the publisher.
I am so sorry. When they ask for that, the least they can do is say, “Got it.”
Tamela, the most beautiful and encouraging rejection letter I ever received was from you. I’d worked so hard on that manuscript and gone back and forth in emails and making the changes suggested and such that I was certain if it was finally rejected, I’d be devastated, and yet, I wasn’t. Your beautiful note was worded in such a way that I felt really encouraged and like I couldn’t wait to try again. Thanks more than you’ll probably ever realise for that.
Hannah, thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate knowing I could be an encourager!
In the 1990’s I sent a story to Amazing Stories Magazine (sci-fi stories) and received a full page critique which gave me tips on what I needed to change to improve, pointed out the grammar errors, and even misspellings. Thus were the days before “Grammarly”!
Back then I was crushed, and even more so now as I look back on how poorly written that story was. That editor showed me grace in responding to me in such great detail. Even then magazine responses were the one paragraph of “thanks, but it’s not for us.”
How wonderful to receive such encouragement!
I have read the rejection letter from your assistant over and over. It feels like a kiss on the forehead.
Looking forward to next Thursday’s blog.
Awwww, thank you, Deb!
The most difficult rejection I received was two-fold. I had attended a writers conference where I pitched my book to several publishers and agents. A representative from Zondervan as well as an agent seemed interested.
The rep for Zondervan gave me specific instructions to forward my manuscript to a specific person at the publisher and if I did not hear a response within two weeks to contact her (she gave me her office number). She made sure before our time ended that I had her contact information. I assured her I did.
One of the agents with an agency that I met with also seemed interested and asked me to forward the full manuscript to her email inbox as well as another manuscript I was not prepared to pitch but I had briefly mentioned.
I forwarded my manuscript(s) as instructed to both parties, but never heard anything back…ever. I even called the rep from Zondervan when I did not hear back and my phone call was never returned. I found it odd that I heard nothing, not even a form rejection, especially when my manuscript was specifically requested by both. That was pretty painful because I had high hopes when not just one, but two people seemed interested and then to hear nothing at all.
Oh I’d be crushed, too! I hope one day that connection will come back into play for you!
Denise, I’m so sorry. That shouldn’t have happened. But sometimes, it just does.
I suggest trying with a couple of different agents, citing that the project did garner interest at a major conference, and go from there.
I had a similar experience. I met with an editor at a conference who praised my picture book manuscript and asked my permission to bring it to their full editorial committee for approval. She even asked for other manuscripts, which I sent in the following week. I followed up twice and no feedback.
The same conference I met an agent who liked my story pitch of a novel and asked me to do a full book proposal according to his company’s guidelines and send it to him in 6 weeks when he’d be back in the office from conferences. I did hear back from him only to be told he was no longer looking for novels only non-fiction. Could have saved me a lot of time if he’d told me that at the conference.
I recently attended another mini-conference and pitched a different picture book story to a publisher who laughed at all the story points and said she’d like to see the full manuscript. I also pitched two other stories to her that she declined and gave me tips to improve. It will be interesting to see what response I get for the one she did like.