While cleaning up recently I came across a sheaf of rejection letters for the first Feltus. They were wadded up in an angry ball and stuffed between the wall and the large plastic tub where my shelved novels reside. And let me tell you two things about rejection letters.
1) Once you’ve been published they lose their sting (for the book in question at least.)
And 2) (which honestly surprised me) Re-reading them after two or three years, with a book under my belt and another on the way to bolster my confidence, they weren’t so bad. In fact they were encouraging and optimistic and they were from big, big editors. The sort of people you pray will read your manuscript. And they took their time to read and respond. It’s only now that I know how special that is. I was naive and cocky before I was published and I think most writers are otherwise we wouldn’t bother, would we?
At the time though all I could see was the decision not to publish my book and I ignored the good stuff.
I’ll tell you something else. The rejection letters I got when represented by an agent were personal and respectful and pointed, whereas the ones I got subsequently without an agent tended to form letters except for the ones from British publishers- but they are a very polite people aren’t they? So I’d say that is definitely a check on the pro side for anyone contemplating having an agent. You are taken more seriously with an agent.
Every six months or so I think wishfully about having someone represent me again. I’ve blogged about it here before so I won’t rehash, and some day I will meet an agent I love but I already have my deal with my publisher so until I’m working on a stand- alone or a new series I’m pretty much set.
About a year ago, after hanging out with a fellow writer who does wonderful picture books and hearing him rave about his own agent I sent out a couple of query letters and two copies of my book to people I picked out of a writer’s sourcebook because they were in NYC and I liked their names. I had also heard that the way things are these days and specifically with kid’s books since the advances tend to be low, it was harder to get an agent than to get a publisher. Or let’s say, at least as hard.
Anyway I got a phone call back from one but we didn’t click, and a rejection letter from the other although at least it was personal. And he sent my book back. I could tell from the condition of it- pristine, stiff- that it hadn’t been read or even barely opened. Let’s not quibble- if someone isn’t going to bother to read your book, then they really don’t get to give their opinion. To give that agent the benefit of the doubt, I did send him a cover letter with perhaps a little too much information (because the first agent had asked me all kinds of probing questions on the phone) and he probably thought I sounded needy and clinging. And after those two attempts I decided I didn’t care really. I have my own support network of family and writer friends who don’t mind when I’m negative, cynical and bitter.
So don’t toss your rejection letters. Well, you can toss the form letters although it’s good to keep them on file so you know not to send those particular editors your next book. Keep them and then after a year or so, or after you’re published you can either read them again in a self-satisfied glow or you can pile them in the driveway, douse them with gasoline and strike a match, then watch ’em burn.
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