Dealing with rejection - Writers Forum

Joe Moore · 05-10-2007, 11:04 AM

Jessica Faust, a literary agent at BookEnds, had an interesting post on the evolution of rejections today on their blog. Enjoy.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/

SeattleCPA · 05-12-2007, 09:16 PM

I feel like I should say this. I used to keep a folder (which grew in size steadily) of all the great ideas (I thought I had) that publishers had rejected.

Then I remember showing it to someone once--the bigness of it--and they gave me a strange look... and now, well, now I don't know where the folder is. In some box someplace.

I guess my point is that rejection is part of selling ideas which is definitely part of the business of writing.

Destroyer · 05-15-2007, 04:27 AM

My first book got rejected. I rewrote it. It's nothing surprising. Rejections happen.

Mike C · 05-15-2007, 04:56 AM

Rejection = validation.

Dawnstorm · 05-15-2007, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

Rejection = validation.

Of what?

Banzai · 05-15-2007, 12:56 PM

Of your being a writer.

Mike C · 05-15-2007, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

Of what?

Your first rejection is a certificate. It says "This writer just stopped being a wannabe".

Only people who don't try don't get rejections.

lakotadan · 05-15-2007, 09:02 PM

rejections don't bother me, one of these days I will be at the place, right time, right agent, right publisher and then with a little luck and talent my message will be discovered.

Then again maybe I'll do what Earl Stanley Gardner did after facing off with a nasty publisher and say, "It's a damn good story if you have any comments write them on the back of a check."

Destroyer · 05-16-2007, 05:57 AM

I like the sound of that quote.

Dawnstorm · 05-16-2007, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

Your first rejection is a certificate. It says "This writer just stopped being a wannabe".

Only people who don't try don't get rejections.

Ah, I see now.

terrib · 05-16-2007, 11:53 AM

Lakotadan, I love it! For me rejection is like ... rebirth. You just improve and go on. You forget the pain after a while, and later when you read it, you wonder how you ever had to balls to send it.
Terri

Destroyer · 05-17-2007, 03:48 AM

Rejection helps to improve your work. You get told that your book isn't good enough so you want to change that, to make it better. There's nothing wrong with rejection. You certainly shouldn't give up after the first unwanted result. If you did that you'd never get anywhere.

archer88iv · 05-17-2007, 04:27 AM

I was gonna keep my first rejection letter. It sat on top of my computer monitor for a few months while I was at college. God knows where it is now. I decided not to worry about it; there are plenty more where it came from.

Destroyer · 05-17-2007, 05:58 AM

If you want to do that it all depends on how you felt about the news. If it got you depressed then you should chuck the letter and not think about it. If it made you more determined, then take a good look at it every day.

WriterDude · 05-17-2007, 06:24 AM

I wrote a book once (in norwegian, btw). It got rejected. I re-wrote the entire thing. It got rejected. I sent it to six different publishers. Every single one of them got rejected.

I re-wrote the entire thing in english, just for fun. It obvioulsy got rejected (norwegian writer, living in Norway, writing in english for a norwegian audience?)

I checked online and found a few e-book publishers. I still got rejected.

I found an english eBook publisher who releases books for free.

And finally got published. For free, yes, but it's a start. The second book also got published, and although for free, I never wrote for the money anyway. At least now I am a twice-published writer and just keep writing. If the next book isn't picked up by a publishers after several attempts, I'll just write another one. I have over a dozen ideas that could work great as a book, so at least one of them should be publishable.