Dear Richard
Thank you for submitting the sample chapters of your novel The Paths Life Takes. I apologize for the lengthy response time but because we accept unagented submissions by email we are inundated and I do read them all. I'm
sorry to tell you that we don't feel we can add your novel to our list. We can only accept a small fraction of the works that come to us and we must be completely committed to any work we take on. Your writing is extremely good and I'm confident that you will find the right home for this work if you
persevere.
With all best wishes for your writing endeavours,
James McKinnon
Well there it is - my first rejection letter. It was delivered straight to my inbox yesterday with all the suspense that accompanies the arrival of a piece of spam. There's just something so unsatisfying about opening a letter like this by email. You want to be able to hold on to things like this with fingers trembling in anticipation as you work up the courage to first rip open the envelope and then unfold the letter.
Just pointing and clicking took all of the drama out of the moment. These are supposed to be important way-stations in your career as a writer; rejection letters piling one on top of the other until you're almost ready to give up, when at the last moment you receive the long hoped-for letter of acceptance. It's just hard to build up anything akin to that sort of importance when the letter comes electronically.
First of all it doesn't have any identification that it is from a publisher. There's just a name in the address line. It took me a couple of seconds to even remember who James McKinnon was, let along that he held a little piece of my soul in his computer. It would have been far nicer to receive it in some nice envelope with the publisher's crest or name embossed on the back. Then I could have some good anxious moments to spend before even opening it.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
Bad luck Richard, but by my standards that is a "good" rejection letter - doesn't look like the standard form letter. And remember, as we all like to remember, J.K. Rowling had six....
2 - Rohan Venkat
Congratulations, man, that's the first step in getting there.
3 - John Spivey
Sorry to hear that, Richard. I was rooting for you to pull off the miracle. I'm past 50, maybe moving toward 80 on the Rejection scale. I am beginning to think that editors and agents aren't actually looking for real talent, only knockoffs, or something decidedly formulaic.
Someone once made a manuscript of a published book (The Yearling, I think, winner of a Pulitzer Prize) and sent it around. Outright rejected everywhere except for one small press that recognized the manuscript.
A lot of the initial readers are college interns or underpaid assistants. The question is, would they know quality writing even if it came up and bitch-slapped them a bit?
4 - Elvira Black
Richard, I have to say that the rejection letter you received was very positive, and probably pretty rare for the tough fiction market. That's the kind of letter I used to get (in the mail, back in the day) that gave me enough hope to persevere and eventually get published. Of course, I wasn't writing a novel, but just articles--but I think the same principle applies. Virtually every writer goes through this, and there are many stories of writers whose work was rejected by numerous publishers, only to finally be picked up and become blockbusters. With your perserverance, drive, and talent, I feel confident that you will prevail!
5 - Snarkattack
That is one damn fine rejection letter - if I were you, I'd cling onto the last sentence and elope with it. I'm assuming a publisher wouldn't say such a thing unless they really meant it.
I got my first e-mail rejection the other week and it wasn't even polite; in fact, I was a bit embarrassed that it stung me for a split second.
Keep going for it, if you really want it. Like you said, you've just begun and given what that publisher wrote to you, I'd say that getting published is definitely worth pursuing. Good luck!
6 - Angeni Wyanet
Just keep pumping out the work. I am amused by your remark stating you think your work is better than most works found on book shelves today and I have two things to say about that. You haven't lost the confidence needed to put out that "great" novel yet, and two, the library is filled with books which are better that any of those found in book stores today. Unfortunately, many of those library sections gather cobwebs while the more prolific pulp producer is making money with his work. What you have to do is decide to write to make money or write to make people think. Sometimes authors are lucky enough to do both all between the front and back covers of one book. So keep at it. You may join that elite group.