Blog Post: Rejection

[From Our Blog]

New blog post by Claire G – discussions in this thread, please
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You Are Not Alone

Most people experience rejection when querying. Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, got so many rejections she ended up self-publishing. Now, over 45 million copies have been sold world-wide. Rudyard Kipling was told that he didn’t know how to use the English language. F. Scott Fitzgerald was told he’d have a decent book if he got rid of that Gatsby character. J.K. Rowling was advised to get a day job. Stephen King famously pinned his rejection letters to the wall. Sylvia Plath said: “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”



It Only Takes One ‘Yes’

Rejection can hurt, especially in the early days of querying until your skin thickens. Time and again, I hear interviewed authors say that perseverance is key. It’s okay to get demoralised sometimes – we’re human after all – but if writing is your passion, don’t give up! Take a break if you need to. Perhaps write another book while you’re querying, or when you feel like you’re getting nowhere with the current book and you’ve exhausted all possibilities. So many authors do not get their first book published or even their second, third etc. Writers write, so write!



Experience

I wrote my first novel when I was twenty-seven. I was forty-one when I was offered representation by a literary agent. That book has been rejected several times by publishers (and counting). I’ve written a book and a half since I got my agent. One of these days, the right book might land in the right editor’s inbox. It may take another fourteen years, but so what? I write for the joy of it, the joy of creating characters, their world and their story. If it takes a long time, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be writing regardless.



Final Thoughts

If you feel comfortable sharing, what’s your experience of rejection?

How do you deal with it?
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By @Claire G
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

 

[BrianY]

I'm far more bothered by silence than rejection. If I submit to 25 publications and none respond, I feel really creepy. If they don't want it and tell me, I'll want to try again.

 

[Rich.]

I'm far more bothered by silence than rejection. If I submit to 25 publications and none respond, I feel really creepy. If they don't want it and tell me, I'll want to try again.

I can relate to this, and I think it's as true of life as it is of pitching!

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I've always written, but I've only been through the agenting process once. It was most instructive – painfully so. Back in 2017 I finished my first novel and set about pitching it to agents as an action-adventure historical-fantasy, the first volume in a possible series. I pitched to 22 agents. Three of those agents asked to see the full manuscript. All of them subsequently declined to offer representation. The first agent to request a full manuscript was young and thirsty for success; within a month they'd come back to me with detailed reasons as to why they weren't interested in taking me on as a client. Their critique of the work was placatingly positive but overwhelmingly bruising. The second agent was more established. They took nine months to get back to me after the full request, and when they did it was a one line "no thanks" email – ouch. The third agent was someone with a very successful roster. And more promising still, I had a slight personal contact with them upon which I imagined I could buttress my pitch. They took five months to get back to me after the full request. The wait was agonizing. The pass that finally came was warm, genuine, and – perhaps because of that tenuous personal connection – contained a short but incisive critique of the work. The critique was, with hindsight, spot on, boiling down to "[y]ou certainly write well [...] but I think it suffered a little from trying to do too much at once [...] I wasn’t entirely sure who it was aimed at, or where it would comfortably sit in a bookshop." It took a long time for me to process the experience and to understand what that third agent meant. I also learned not to push too hard on ill-perceived personal connections: they break surprisingly easily – my bad.

Litopia was (has been/is) instrumental in my coming to understand the fundamentals of how to write commercial fiction and how to navigate the publishing industry. I joined this place towards the end of the pitching adventure outlined above. I went on to have some (at the time much needed) ego-burnishing success on a couple of early Pop-Up Submissions shows. But more than that, I learned how to handle and use critique (often another form of rejection) by putting my work in front of other writers and realizing that their insights made me question my own, that the work is the target and not the author, and that responding to rejection by upping one's game is empowering, much like an intense workout at the gym – it leaves you sore, but tomorrow you are stronger. That experience helped me make sense of my entire first-novel journey, not to mention the whole idea of what it is to be a writer. [I didn't start out this post with the idea of writing an advert for Litopia, but it does seem to have come out that way!]

I still write, but these days only for myself. My kids, who are young and for whom I'm the primary carer, have the lion's share of my time. This will change as they grow older. And when next I do come to sell a novel, I'll be better at it than last time. Rejection is good. It bursts your bubbles.

 

[E G Logan]

nine months to get back to me after the full request, and when they did it was a one line "no thanks" email

Been there. Bl**dy irritating.

I also hate the 'No responses'. How much time would it take, building it into the automated process as the very last agent element, to send the person submitting a 1-line "Thanks, but this is not one for us"? No one is asking for a deep psychological analysis of the material – I think we all know better than that – but leaving people hanging on is bad manners, and surely must be bad for business, too.

It is true that 'rejection bursts your bubbles' – but only if you actually get a rejection. We can use a rejection as a prompt to send to someone else, maybe even lots of others, or to put the wretched thing under the bed or whatever, but silence...

 

[Trey]

New blog post by Claire G – discussions in this thread, please
---

You Are Not Alone

Most people experience rejection when querying. Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, got so many rejections she ended up self-publishing. Now, over 45 million copies have been sold world-wide. Rudyard Kipling was told that he didn’t know how to use the English language. F. Scott Fitzgerald was told he’d have a decent book if he got rid of that Gatsby character. J.K. Rowling was advised to get a day job. Stephen King famously pinned his rejection letters to the wall. Sylvia Plath said: “I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”



It Only Takes One ‘Yes’

Rejection can hurt, especially in the early days of querying until your skin thickens. Time and again, I hear interviewed authors say that perseverance is key. It’s okay to get demoralised sometimes – we’re human after all – but if writing is your passion, don’t give up! Take a break if you need to. Perhaps write another book while you’re querying, or when you feel like you’re getting nowhere with the current book and you’ve exhausted all possibilities. So many authors do not get their first book published or even their second, third etc. Writers write, so write!



Experience

I wrote my first novel when I was twenty-seven. I was forty-one when I was offered representation by a literary agent. That book has been rejected several times by publishers (and counting). I’ve written a book and a half since I got my agent. One of these days, the right book might land in the right editor’s inbox. It may take another fourteen years, but so what? I write for the joy of it, the joy of creating characters, their world and their story. If it takes a long time, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be writing regardless.



Final Thoughts

If you feel comfortable sharing, what’s your experience of rejection?

How do you deal with it?
---

By @Claire G
Get the discussion going – post your thoughts & comments in the thread below…

I love this post, thanks for continuing to keep us psychologically supported with your wise words. I have had plenty of form rejections and a few very good ones - one is even on my website as i got permission from the commissioning editor who gave it to me and was most impressed. Sadly, that book still hasn't found a home and I put it to one side to work on other projects, even though i know it's a wonderful book. I am considering self publishing that one but find the whole idea (following investigating how to do it properly) just too daunting.

 

[MattScho]

My favorite rejection, back in the pre-internet days, was an agent who returned my cover letter in my SASE with "NO!" written in large handwriting.

 

[E G Logan]

My favorite rejection, back in the pre-internet days, was an agent who returned my cover letter in my SASE with "NO!" written in large handwriting.

Oh, dear – that's very frank.
Perhaps he/she trained first as a teacher, or a lecturer...?

 

[Peyton Stafford]

When rejection letters came as squares of paper I drove a nail into the wall next to the toilet my bathroom and impaled them upon it. Like the opinions of the literary morons who turned down my stories they were better for wiping the shit off my butt, than giving me advice about my stories.

 

[MattScho]

Oh, dear – that's very frank.
Perhaps he/she trained first as a teacher, or a lecturer...?

I think dominatrix

 

[Pamela Jo]

I think dominatrix

When I was working as a reporter an editor told me this was my true calling. I think he was trying to compliment me. Journalism is a strange place to work.

 

[PCFrontier]

Hi Clare,
I sent off my first submission to seven literary agents who advised on their website they accept science fiction. Seven is supposed to be a lucky number - isn't it? I received one acknowledgement in return. Maybe I should be grateful I got that.

Four of these agents advised they respond within eight weeks. After eight weeks I had received no response from these four. So, I decided to re-send my script to them as a reminder. I changed the agent letter, hopefully an improvement and asked if they had a chance to look at my work. This may be a waste of time, but four chase up emails is no effort.

In two weeks time it will be three months since I sent off the submission. Maybe it's time for three more chase up emails. Or should I sort out seven more literary agents to approach? Maybe it should be six this time. Six is a lucky number - isn't it?
Best wishes
Paul C

 

[Claire G]

Hi Clare,
I sent off my first submission to seven literary agents who advised on their website they accept science fiction. Seven is supposed to be a lucky number - isn't it? I received one acknowledgement in return. Maybe I should be grateful I got that.

Four of these agents advised they respond within eight weeks. After eight weeks I had received no response from these four. So, I decided to re-send my script to them as a reminder. I changed the agent letter, hopefully an improvement and asked if they had a chance to look at my work. This may be a waste of time, but four chase up emails is no effort.

In two weeks time it will be three months since I sent off the submission. Maybe it's time for three more chase up emails. Or should I sort out seven more literary agents to approach? Maybe it should be six this time. Six is a lucky number - isn't it?
Best wishes
Paul C

I would send to another batch of agents now, Paul. Fingers crossed for you xx

 

[PCFrontier]

I would send to another batch of agents now, Paul. Fingers crossed for you xx

Thanks Claire. I will make a few small changes and give it whirl. I hope your writing is going well.
best wishes
Paul C

 

[Peyton Stafford]

I'm far more bothered by silence than rejection. If I submit to 25 publications and none respond, I feel really creepy. If they don't want it and tell me, I'll want to try again.

Wishing I could cook, and I love what you say. The silence is deadlier than the negativity.

 

[RK Wallis]

I wrote my first novel when I was twenty-seven. I was forty-one when I was offered representation by a literary agent. That book has been rejected several times by publishers (and counting). I’ve written a book and a half since I got my agent. One of these days, the right book might land in the right editor’s inbox. It may take another fourteen years, but so what? I write for the joy of it, the joy of creating characters, their world and their story. If it takes a long time, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be writing regardless.

Oh, Claire, great post! Your journey sounds very similar to mine. I was living in London for my first rejection. I would have been 28, back in the days of paper. That one stung, but what a wake up call!

I would have been 43 when I got my first agent. After a year of rounds, my agent recommended I self publish. The word was editors loved it, but the novel was too niche to make money, so the finance teams of publishing houses were rejecting it. Disappointing, but an experience. When I self published, I learnt about self publishing (not for me). But I also learnt to write wide. A double lesson.

Like the opinions of the literary morons who turned down my stories they were better for wiping the shit off my butt, than giving me advice about my stories.

That's a bit harsh. They're just doing a job, and they're a person and reader like you and me. They are entitled to their reactions. Sure, we might'nt agree with the way they handle things, but isn't that like anything in life? I don't know, maybe I'm more tolerant because I have to constantly surrender my body, house and pets to a complete stranger who's values don't align with my own. I find dozens of bad ones until I find a very few good ones. Isn't that like the agent journey?

Is it just me? but everytime I polish my beginning, I think, now I need to do this for the whole novel. Am I being too much of a perfectionist? In my mind, I'm thinking that's why I got full MS rejections when they came.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

Oh, Claire, great post! Your journey sounds very similar to mine. I was living in London for my first rejection. I would have been 28, back in the days of paper. That one stung, but what a wake up call!

I would have been 43 when I got my first agent. After a year of rounds, my agent recommended I self publish. The word was editors loved it, but the novel was too niche to make money, so the finance teams of publishing houses were rejecting it. Disappointing, but an experience. When I self published, I learnt about self publishing (not for me). But I also learnt to write wide. A double lesson.



That's a bit harsh. They're just doing a job, and they're a person and reader like you and me. They are entitled to their reactions. Sure, we might'nt agree with the way they handle things, but isn't that like anything in life? I don't know, maybe I'm more tolerant because I have to constantly surrender my body, house and pets to a complete stranger who's values don't align with my own. I find dozens of bad ones until I find a very few good ones. Isn't that like the agent journey?

Is it just me? but everytime I polish my beginning, I think, now I need to do this for the whole novel. Am I being too much of a perfectionist? In my mind, I'm thinking that's why I got full MS rejections when they came.

No, seriously. We are the entertainment industry held hostage by twenty-somethings barely holding onto their jobs and looking the the next big thing... hope that makes sense.

 

[RK Wallis]

No, seriously. We are the entertainment industry held hostage by twenty-somethings barely holding onto their jobs and looking the the next big thing... hope that makes sense.

Ah, my apologies, I totally understand where you're coming from. But again, using my carer analogy, some of the young ones are brilliant. I just had a 50 year old carer ghost me and the 22 year old replacement is a breath of fresh air. Mind you, finding a good young one is hard. I suppose that's why we're in the trenches.

 

[LJ Beck]

Love your post, @Claire G ! And you're so right... keep writing! If writing is your passion, don’t give up!

I always think there's something to learn from rejections. Something valuable. Something that will help make me a better writer. Even if it's how to take rejections well. Or how to have gratitude for someone who took the time to read my work and offer an opinion. In particular if it's someone with a different perspective (age, nationality, culture) than my own, there's always something to learn from that.

I watched a Masterclass of N K Jemison and she said she wrote a bunch of books that never saw the light of day. And the book that got her an agent wasn't the one to get published. She suggested owning the rejections with grace, as badges of courage. That rejections are just part of being a writer. She was in a writing group that celebrated rejections in milestones, 50/100/150... Maybe we should start a "Rejection Celebration Club" ?

 

[RK Wallis]

Rejection Celebration Club" ?

I recall we had once. Might to start afresh. How about the next person to get a rejection starts the thread? Let's start counting...

 

[E G Logan]

Maybe we should start a "Rejection Celebration Club"

Agreed.

I'm happy to be among the first with mine from the 6th of this month, if you like.
And with that set a 'Celebration Challenge' of receiving a rejection in Ihr and 40 minutes.

Anyone do worse than that?