Hello, writers... how's your rejection slip collection coming? I just got a new one this week. It set a new record. I snailmailed a story to Fantasy and Science Fiction on the day after the Inauguration-- January 21st. (Meant to do it on the 20th but was incapacitated by joy.) The rejection slip is dated January 23rd.
And it's even personalized-- contains my name and the title of my story, right in the body of the Regrets. They have rejection down to a science at F and SF. I'm still admiring it.
Does anybody besides me think rejection is actually good for something?
I don't approve of this particular rejection slip, mind you, because it's a form rejection and the story I submitted totally kicks A. But in general, rejection slips have made me a better writer. Especially when they contain useful nuggets like "you really need to delve deeper into this complex subject" or "the ending seems to come from the author's intervention rather than the character's actions". That *&^% is useful, if it can just get past my ego.
(All writers have enormous egos. Otherwise they wouldn't write.)
Of course I've had some incredibly useless rejections, like the one that said I "may not be the right person to tell this story" (which I totally @#$#ing sold later, so there) and one that said "our marketing department felt they couldn't sell it".
The most useful thing is when you start to get a consensus-- as with a book I'm currently shopping, which three editors in succession have said isn't believable. Maybe it just isn't believable.
And the overall effect, I think, is to hone your skills, give you what it takes to be a little fish in a big pond, after a lifetime of praise from your English teachers just because you could work a verb. Either that or to send you crawling under your bed to weep out your life in despair.
For a gallery of rejection, see Literary Rejections On Display.
How about you? Any useful rejections? Useless ones?
In other writing news, longtime lurkin' kossack kappelt won a Newbery Honor for her book The Underneath this week.
Interesting article on self-publishing in the New York Times.
Check out other great literary diaries such as:
Sarahnity's Books by kossacks on Tuesday nights
cfk's Bookflurries on Wednesday nights
plf515's What Are You Reading? on Friday mornings