Comments on: OH CRAP!

By: Sloane

Sloane — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:54:07 +0000

Ah, my talented collegues, I find it hard any of you would ever let a rejection letter do more than spur you on. Each of you has a unique style and a glorious sense of humor that keeps me smiling.

Yasmine, I think your DH would croak if you worked in Field’s. Tooooo many gadgets and LV to spend those hard earned spray dollars on.

Forrest, have you considered USING your Bipolar to enhance your writing? You have the condition therefore you are an expert on it. You could give talks, write a self-help book, articles for medical journals and columnists. Your limits are endless on this subject and there’s a bunch of dollars with your name on them waiting for you to produce.

Jenna, any publisher who would reject your writing is an asshole, plain and simple.

I must agree, writing chose us and I’ve always believed God has a fantastic sense of humor!

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:10:29 +0000

My ritual for the PFO letter? Get riproaring drunk then bad mouth whoever sent me the PFO letter. Because, we all know, I write gold. Gold baby! *snort* Oh except for one manuscript that one an publisher contest then I read their books and I was all “Please reject my book, please reject my book.” As my books’ cousins were…wonky. I was rejected “too dark” Pffft and eventually the publisher disappeared. Oh and for the romantic comedy I wrote that sucked and when they said “This did not tickle our funny bone” (pffft) I flung the letter over my shoulder and said “That’s okay, neither do your books” then I called Kate who received the same letter.

I much prefer “Jenna, your story thoroughly rocked our world.” in a letter, I must say.

By: For The Trees

For The Trees — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:10:27 +0000

I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t choose this field of endeavor. It was visited upon me by a Comic God. A God with a Sense Of Humor. Why ELSE would I be Bipolar AND verbally talented?

Yeah, it chose me. And so far, I’ve done reasonably well with it, in spite of all the fish.

By: Yasmine

Yasmine — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 02:40:25 +0000

Did we choose this profession, or did the damn thing chose us? I could make more money at Fields just hanging out and spraying unsuspecting customers with the newest cologne. They’d let me work in the Louis Vuitton department. God knows, I’ve got enough of the stuff. One rejection I received was someone else’s, in my SASE envelope.

By: Sloane

Sloane — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:59:22 +0000

You do have some strange luck! From frustration to elation, makes you wonder why we chose this profession.

By: Beth Anderson

Beth Anderson — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:20:08 +0000

One of my favorite rejections was from an agent who had specifically said he ONLY would accept a one page query letter. He was VERY definite about that. So I send him his One Page Query.

He sends me this rejection that says, in part, “I’m sorry to have to reject this, it sounds really intrigueing, but as you know, I can hardly learn anything about your writing when I don’t have the manuscript.”

I figured he was drunk.

Another favorite was one I received a year and a half after I sent the full mss to a publisher At Her Request, then sold it to another publisher. It was published and had won five awards by the time her untimely rejection letter arrived with a three page diatribe on everything she objected to about the book, never dreaming it was already an award winning novel.
I figured she was drunk too.

Gotta love ‘em. But this IS a subjective business, so as Sloane says, keep sending those queries and partials and manuscripts out.

Cheers!