Coping with Rejection: Part 2

This is information from a week-long July blog posting from a literary agency Books & Such:

When an agent sends a rejection letter, different types of rejections mean different things. Here’s the inside scoop, as I see it, on four main forms of rejection:

The Plain Old Rejection (usually sent for rejecting query letters):

This letter will say something like, Thanks, but no thanks. It means that the project isn’t right for that agent for one reason or another. If you continue to receive these rejections from every agent you’re submitting to, consider revising your query, or maybe it’s time to move on to a new idea.

The ‘Revise and Send Again’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

This rejection letter will have some revision notes in it. This usually means that your proposal or manuscript sparked the agent’s interest, but the agent knows that it needs to be revised in some way to have a chance in the current market. These rejections usually ask for the project to be sent again, if the suggested revisions are made. If you receive one of these rejections, be sure to follow through and send that revised project back to the agent. (Agents hate to make suggestions, only to have the potential client never resubmit but instead shows the new and improved version to another agent–who, of course, thought it was genius!)

The ‘Any Other Ideas?’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

If you receive a rejection asking if you have any other ideas for projects, this typically means that the agent enjoyed your writing, but didn’t think that your idea would work well in the marketplace. You’ll want to write back to the agent with a list of project ideas and an estimated date of when he or she could see a proposal, if you aren’t finished with the writing yet.

The ‘This Project Isn’t Right for Me’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

This type of rejection is used as a thanks, but no thanks rejection for proposals and manuscripts. It means that something in your query letter sparked the agent’s interest, but when he or she looked at the writing sample and examined the idea more closely, it wasn’t a good fit. If you continue to receive this type of rejection, stop submitting your project and consider revising.

Battlescars

Have you received any rather rude rejection letters lately? If so...don't take them too personally. Suffering a few battlescars is part of being a writer. The following are excerpts from rejection letters sent from publishers to authors...


Jorge Luis Borges

'utterly untranslatable'

Isaac Bashevis Singer

'It's Poland and the rich Jews again.'

Anais Nin

'There is no commercial advantage in acquiring her, and, in my opinion, no artistic.'

Jack Kerouac

'His frenetic and scrambled prose perfectly express the feverish travels of the Beat Generation. But is that enough? I don't think so.'

Lady Chatterley's Lover by D H Lawrence

'for your own sake do not publish this book.'

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

'an irresponsible holiday story'

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

'an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.'

Watership Down by Richard Adams

'older children wouldn't like it because its language was too difficult.'

On Sylvia Plath

'There certainly isn't enough genuine talent for us to take notice.'

Crash by J G Ballard

‘The author of this book is beyond psychiatric help.'

The Deer Park by Norman Mailer

'This will set publishing back 25 years.'

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

'Do you realize, young woman, that you're the first American writer ever to poke fun at sex.'

The Diary of Anne Frank
‘The girl doesn’t, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the “curiosity” level.’

Lust for Life by Irving Stone

(which was rejected 16 times, but found a publisher and went on to sell about 25 million copies)

‘ A long, dull novel about an artist.’

Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope

'The grand defect of the work, I think, as a work of art is the low-mindedness and vulgarity of the chief actors. There is hardly a lady" or "gentleman" amongst them.'

Carrie by Stephen King

'We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.'

Catch – 22 by Joseph Heller

‘I haven’t really the foggiest idea about what the man is trying to say… Apparently the author intends it to be funny – possibly even satire – but it is really not funny on any intellectual level … From your long publishing experience you will know that it is less disastrous to turn down a work of genius than to turn down talented mediocrities.’

The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré

‘You’re welcome to le Carré – he hasn’t got any future.’

Animal Farm by George Orwell

‘It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA’

Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde

‘My dear sir,

I have read your manuscript. Oh, my dear sir.’

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

‘... overwhelmingly nauseating, even to an enlightened Freudian … the whole thing is an unsure cross between hideous reality and improbable fantasy. It often becomes a wild neurotic daydream … I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years.’

Source: Writer's Services.