The quintessential quantification of quality. - Writers Forum

Half There · 06-22-2005, 08:14 PM

This question occurred to me recently, and I figure that here would be a good place to discuss it since most of us hope to be published (or else published further if we already have been).

If 90% of everything Theodore Sturgeon saw was crap, and at least half of everything published is, then how bad must the stuff that's rejected be?

I'm really curious about this, mainly because knowing would give me a better idea of the minimum quality demanded for print publishing. If any of you happen to have works, especially of fantasy or science fiction, that were rejected by a print publishing company, I hope you wouldn't mind sharing the reasons for rejection in order to educate us naive young novelist-wannabes.

James T Palmer · 06-23-2005, 02:42 AM

A rejected manuscript isn't necessarily of bad quality. One of the best books I have ever read was rejected over forty times before it was published (Stephen R Donaldson's first Covenant novel, Lord Foul's Bane).

mammamaia · 06-23-2005, 07:12 AM

and one of faulkner's was rejected 99 times before becoming a literary classic...

Anidazen · 06-23-2005, 08:33 AM

Ever heard of a book called, what was it... Harry something - about this wizard boy I think. It's not exactly unknown, I think it's got a bit of a following actually - but that had trouble getting published.

In fact it was rejected like 7 times? Before on the last effort a small time publisher agreed to give it a small run. I think it warranted a reprint.

The point is - rejection doesn't mean a lack of quality. And 'quality' itself is an abstract term. A lot of people, for example, think that Dan Brown - an incredible commercial success - isn't a very good 'writer'. It's entirely subjective. But even the definition of 'quality' that everyone can agree on doesn't necessarily mean publication.

silverwriter · 06-23-2005, 09:28 AM

Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul has a long list of famous authors that were rejected multiple times. The list even includes Dr. Suess (

) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. (If my memory serves me.)

Anidazen · 06-23-2005, 09:37 AM

The much toted thing about Stephen King having to get a sturdier spike to hang his rejection slips on...

But having all said that quality doesn't necessarily mean publication, I think it's fair to say that publication DOES necessarily mean a certain level of quality.

And it's that level to which we have to aspire. There's no measurement of it. But if you're not at that level of quality, then you shouldn't try any submissions.

Half There · 06-23-2005, 04:58 PM

Yeah, some of the stuff that gets rejected is good, but the vast majority is unpublishable, for whatever reason. What make a book unpublishable is what I'm asking.

I'm not looking for inspirational stories here. A good student might apply to Harvard, fail, and then have to fall on back-up and back-up before they end up and some local liberal arts college, then go on to be famous. A bad student, however, hasn't got any sort of shot at the Ivy League outside personal delusions. I'm looking for that line between good student and bad student, so to speak.

Verago · 06-27-2005, 08:30 AM

I think a certain care for politeness, etiquette, and all that will help a lot when you are trying to get published.
If two people send a publisher an email, and one of them has an excellent MSS, and the email is worded like:

"liek OMG dood, i herd j00 was pubbing thangs, an i wuz wondring if j00 wuld b intrested in publishing mine. thnx. plz rite baq."

I highly doubt any publisher would consider publishing the person.

But if someone, with even a crappy MSS, wrote an email like this:
'Dear Sir or Madam:
I have recently finished my MSS of a story I have been working on for the past year, and when I began searching for a possible publisher, your company's ad caught my eye.
It's a fantasy story, and I read in the advertisement that your company was fond of fantasy.
Please let me know if you're interested.

Sincerely,
Ethanael Tyler"

You're highly likely to -at least- be considered. If you get an appointment to meet the publisher, you're already farther along than the leet speaking person described above. ^_^

It's all in the wrist.
On the writing hand, that is.

Ethanael.

Ilan Bouchard · 06-27-2005, 02:39 PM

www.RejectionCollection.com is a database of rejection slips, so that might be worth looking at.