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Friday, October 10, 2008

Thanks for Nothing

Did you remember to thank a rejecting literary agent today? Literary agent Jessica Faust  over at Bookends LLC blog has this and more to say on the topic:

"Don’t forget to celebrate every success—a finished chapter, a finished book, a nice rejection letter."

Definitely celebrate your rejections, people! (Or does she mean celebrate the hardworking, under appreciated creep who rejected you?) While you're at it, check out the 30 sycophants who comment on her post, which is titled "Bittersweet Email."  The comments alone will make you want to send a thank you note to yourself because you're not one of them.

6 comments:

The Rejection Queen said...

Hey loooooooooooooove your blog. We rejectioners gotta stick together. I will defintely be back.

Anonymous said...

Okay, this post wins for gross picture prize. Totally.

LCarson said...

Hmmm. I think you need to re-read her post. She's not suggesting that writer's thank agents for rejecting them, not at all actually. She's mentioning that when she WAS thanked, it kick-started her thoughts about the rejection process, and she's basically agreeing with you, on all of your blog posts, that agents and publishers need to at least be sensitive to the hard work that writers put in to a submission. And when she says at the end, "Celebrate every success", she doesn't imply that to celebrate it, you have to thank someone for rejecting you. She implies that a thoughtful and encouraging rejection is a small success in itself, because it shows that someone recognized what you had accomplished even as they confirmed that it wasn't for them. You really need to start looking at things realistically, because your tinted perspective of the world is just making you more unhappy.

The Rejection Queen said...

Hey I got a mean rejection letter today....go to my blog to read it. I'm really sad now.

Anonymous said...

Jessica's post didn't bother me. Honestly, I thought it was nice. When I've been depressed and discouraged, I've taken heart from kind rejection letters.

But here's a post from a literary agent which is so filled with condescension it made my blood boil:

http://blog.wylie-merrick.com/2008/09/something-to-consider.html

Anonymous said...

New post please! That photo is making me ill.