An Annoying Kind Of Rejection

[BrianY]

In another thread, I said I preferred rejection to silence. Generally. But there's one kind of rejection that gets me really worked up - when I get a long analysis as part of the rejection note and it's clearly not about my piece. You know ... when I submit a book with 100 air fryer recipes and the rejection says "we were intrigued by the relationship between the swordsman and the elf - especially in the scene on the glacier, but it's not for us." This happens fairly often and always makes me upset.

****

Back in the days when proposals were printed out on paper, I always put recycling instructions on the last page. You have no idea how many people called me, told me "I read your proposal from cover to cover and I don't know what to do with it." There was no way to tell them they had to read the last page again without sounding rude.

Not every response is a rejection, so it can't be that bad.

 

[Pamela Jo]

In a way that is the worst kind of rejection. Close, but no cigar.

 

[LJ Beck]

Or close for someone else's cigar. Annoying indeed.

 

[Trey]

Oh dear, that stings. Maybe all the rejections we don't get (i.e., no response at all) went to the wrong author!!

 

[Peyton Stafford]

In another thread, I said I preferred rejection to silence. Generally. But there's one kind of rejection that gets me really worked up - when I get a long analysis as part of the rejection note and it's clearly not about my piece. You know ... when I submit a book with 100 air fryer recipes and the rejection says "we were intrigued by the relationship between the swordsman and the elf - especially in the scene on the glacier, but it's not for us." This happens fairly often and always makes me upset.

****

Back in the days when proposals were printed out on paper, I always put recycling instructions on the last page. You have no idea how many people called me, told me "I read your proposal from cover to cover and I don't know what to do with it." There was no way to tell them they had to read the last page again without sounding rude.

Not every response is a rejection, so it can't be that bad.

Thinking about cookbooks and poetry. In another thread, you recommended commercial printing rather than put on demand. made me think about cookbooks beautiful pictures accompanied with text. Not novels, but rather picture books with poems. The recipes are the poems and then your post made me think about rejection letters which are essentially rejections and often irrelevant to the stories or other content submitted. Bravo for your insights.

 

[BrianY]

Peyton, I'm not sure if I recommended commercial printing, but my experience is that their work is far better than typical POD. When it comes to cookbook marketing, photos are the most important part and recipes are second, with text as a distant third. (Although this seems to be changing)

Speaking as somebody who both writes recipes and cooks from them, I could think of them as poetry, but more often, I see them as choreography; cooks following the moves created by some sort of dance visionary. Of course, I'm a photographer, not a poet or a dancer.

 

[Barbara]

.... Or use it as an opportunity to chase them up. As in:

Sorry to hear you didn't like that other author's work. I look forward to hearing you loved mine.

But maybe put it in a less sarcastic and more professional way than my suggestion.

Personally, I'd respond, tell them in the nicest possible way they mixed you up with someone else and at the same time resend your submission for their convenience. You have nothing to lose.

 

[BrianY]

Barbara; I was always told to never respond to a rejection, this could be the exception. I'll give it a try the next time it happens.

 

[Ed Simnett]

Cut and paste is a cruel mistress.

 

[JohnBertel]

I'm sure they accepted your book, meaning, somewhere out there, a fantasy writer is busy with the air fryer.

 

[Pamela Jo]

I'm sure they accepted your book, meaning, somewhere out there, a fantasy writer is busy with the air fryer.

Who knows where that could lead? I could probably still quote dialog from this. Burned into my brain like black toast.