Rejection letters...

Good Monday morning! And still not enough coffee in me yet, sorry, lol ;) It stormed here last night and it's cold and snowy, not liking it at all lol. Anyway, onto the topic for today, rejection letters. So, you've sent out your cover, query, and hopefully sample chapters of your book. You've waited it seems like forever and you finally heard back. They didn't like it. But that's it, no explaining how come or where did I go wrong. I followed your guidelines, I've read countless books in the genre I want to write in..why why why???

Think of it this way. You've gone for a job interview, you've put your best foot forward and you feel really good about it. You were so prepared that it wasn't even funny. Days later you receive a phone call letting you know that they have filled the job, but thank you for applying. That's all they say before they hang up. So, you shrug it off and try again.

It's the same with rejection letters. The truth of the matter is most publishers/agents do not have time to personally address/answer in detail every single submission they receive. They'll usually send you something, unless it's stated on their web site. But to go into the why's or to give examples, etc., unless they are offering to look at more or take you on as a client, pointing out what could be worked on in your story usually doesn't happen all that often.

And here's why.. they receive hundreds or more manuscripts a day, most of them anyway, and they read them in between the work they already have. If they took the time to let you know why they didn't want to look at more, and tell you where you've gone off of the beaten path if that's the case, those hundred a day would eat up hours, like A LOT of hours, and it would, more sooner than later, put them behind on their already pretty heavy workload.

But, if you did get more than we'll say, a general we're sorry but we're gonna pass type of letter, that's a good thing! Yes, even with a pass, because that means there was something that sparked their interest, just not enough to continue. So go through the letter again, read what they said and try to work on those suggestions to make either the story you're working on better, or apply it to your next wip.

Rejection letters can be hard to swallow sometimes, after all, we've put our work out there in the hopes that someone will love our story just as much as we do. It may also be though, that they passed because they have similar stories already on the calendar and they can't add another because their spaces are full for the time being. Or, it could be that your ms was good, but it needed a little more work before it's ready enough for them.

The thing is, you may never know why you got a pass, it happens a lot to be honest. But if you think of it as a job interview type deal like above, the news may not settle so hard, and you'll be able to absorb/process and bounce back and move on to the next maybe a little quicker. Hope this help :)

Happy Writing!