Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014

Dealing with rejection and staying persistent
Finding agents and publishers
Getting published

All creative writers have received rejection letters from publishers, editors, and agents. It just goes with the territory. These rejections can be crushing, especially to young writers. However, the more you submit material and the more you write, the less these passes on your work will bother you; your skin will thicken. Also, when you get past any disappointment, it’s important to note there are levels of rejection, and you might find that you progress up these levels as you work toward getting published.

Types of rejections

The most common type of rejections is a form letter. You might receive something boilerplate like: “Thank you for submitting your manuscript, but it is not right for us.” There also might be a scribbled illegible squiggle of a signature, with no real name printed.

You then progress to personalized rejections. You might get something like: “Thank you for submitting your manuscript to us. While I enjoyed reading it, I felt that it was not strong enough a story for us to be able to publish it.” This one will have a real person’s name and signature on it.

A personalized rejection is a success of a kind, even if it’s negative. (I once received a postcard that simply read “No.”) Why? Because your manuscript was good enough to merit a personal reaction that could not be captured by their form letter. Such letters sometimes can prove to be (although not always) very valuable information.

Before you send your manuscript out again, have another person read it and see how you can make it stronger. I know that’s difficult, but the more informed people who read your work, the better your chances of making your manuscript stronger in all its aspects: story, characterization, writing, and so on.

IDEAS AND INSPIRATION

The more specific feedback you get in a personal rejection, the better. This is for two reasons: more specific feedback helps you fix what’s wrong, and also it means you’re near to having something publishable.

If you get a rejection that says something like: “I really enjoyed reading it and got very caught up in the story. However, I couldn’t relate to Marjorie and somehow didn’t understand her motivation. I also found the ending to be somewhat weak,” then you’re really near success. In fact, the next place you send your manuscript might take it with virtually no changes. You don’t necessarily have to make Marjorie easier to relate to, make her motivation crystal clear, and give a stronger ending before sending it out again. But if nothing else, you should consider the editor’s points.

What you will find frustrating, in addition to rejection, is that not all rejection letters agree. Another might say, “I loved Marjorie! What a great character,” and have issues with the manuscript that were lauded by other editors. What do you do then? That’s a judgment call. There’s no harm in making sure Marjorie is very easy to relate to, and that you make her motivation strong without being patronizing to the reader. But on the other hand, you can’t please all the people all the time and maybe you should go with the consensus of opinions. Ultimately, you have to decide.

If you find that you’re not progressing beyond the form rejection letters, I recommend you revisit your story completely or perhaps even abandon it in favor of another. I know this is difficult, but those form letters have their own message to you, and it’s that your story is far from publishable in its current state.

Keeping the faith

Even though you should know published writers always generate some material that will never be published (myself included), having your manuscript repeatedly rejected is hard. It just is. However, your success in continually sending it out or moving on to another one is what makes the difference between failure and setback.

Here are a few tips for coping with rejection:

·  Laugh at your rejections. I’ve known writers who have made collages out of their rejection letters, burned them in their fireplaces, and even used them as toilet paper.

·  Learn from your rejections. I’ve talked about this one.

·  Always have a new project underway—something that will give you hope no matter how many rejections come your way for the previous project. If a rejection does arrive, it helps to know you have four other pieces in the hands of editors.

Finally, you might take some consolation in knowing the rejection history of these notable writers and works:

·  Dune: 13 rejections

·  Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: 14 rejections

·  Jonathan Livingston Seagull: 18 rejections

·  A Wrinkle in Time: 29 rejections

·  Carrie by Stephen King: 52 rejections

·  Gone with the Wind: 38 rejections

·  A Time to Kill by John Grisham: 45 rejections

·  Louis L’Amour, author of more than 100 western novels: 300+ rejections before publishing his first book

·  Ray Bradbury, author of more than 100 science fiction novels and stories: 800 rejections before selling his first story

·  The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter: rejected so universally the author decided to self-publish the book

And now for a few specific rejection letter excerpts:

·  George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”

·  Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It: “These stories have too many trees in them.”

·  For an article sent to the San Francisco Examiner by Rudyard Kipling: “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.”

·  For 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.”

I hope reading of others’ rejections makes you feel better about your own, if you’ve received some. Simply writing this section has gotten me energized to write and submit new work. Maybe you should return to it if a particular rejection letter gets you down. In the meantime, take heart and get to work. Remember, you are the sole arbiter of your imagination.

The least you need to know

·  Research is important for finding the right agent and publisher match for your work.

·  Query letters are crucial extensions of your manuscript.

·  A synopsis should hold a reader’s attention as well as your manuscript.

·  Rejection is inevitable; persistence is what makes successful writers successful.