LROD Gets A Big Award

Letter I received just now*:

Congratulations! Your website, Literary Rejections on Display, has been selected as a 101 Best Website for Writers as honored by Writer's Digest magazine. Your site has been listed in our May/June 2014 issue.

Attached to this email is the official Writer's Digest 101 Best Website for Writers award logo for 2014 you can post on your site. We hope that you wear this badge with pride and honor the prestige that is carried by being part of the few who make the 101 list.

Congratulations again on being a best website for writers of 2014!

*I'm going to have to come out very soon, micers.

A Very Rare Rejection that Kicked Off 2014

I got this rejection for a non-fiction project at the same time I found out my novel was accepted for publication, so maybe it is not as warm and fuzzy to you as it is to me. Maybe I was under the influence of acceptance, but I did think it a very, very nice rejection.  And you know me: except for Rosemary Ahern, I do not use the n-label very freely, especially not for agents.  This is a special occasion:

Dear WR,

Thank you so much for contacting me with your writing. I am a VERY BIG fan of [referring editor], and her writing, and her judgment, so I especially appreciate her putting us in touch with each other – I trust and admire her taste very much. I have read your proposal for [non-fiction book], and I think you are a gifted writer.  You have a great voice and I am so curious about your book – I almost want to read it just for personal inspiration and because I know I’d enjoy it and it would be very thought-provoking. However – and it pains me to write this – I don’t know that I could easily sell your book. I represent two other books that also cover similar ground, in terms of subject and approach, and I’ve encountered difficulty in placing these works with a publisher. I am sorry not to be more encouraging, but I do want to wish you all success with your other writing projects and your [topic of a different non-fiction] book. I distinctly remember reading that piece in the New York Times when it appeared there!

Sincerely,
Claudia

I think that I may even nominate Claudia Cross for a GAK award. As I told her (weirdly) in my response to this rejection, I wish she could be my friend. Since that is impossible, perhaps she can be my 2014 GAK nominee.  p.s. Did you know that since 2007 when I started this blog, a substance called Gak has been introduced on the market as a child's toy? Reference the photo above for a sense of what the stuff is.

Spell Check Sting

Ouch. But you've got to admit that the editor is a kind fellow and handled this situation well. The mouse who sent this rejection in wrote: "I honestly did run spell check, but the big bull couldn't take a few small errors":

Dear Mr. [Poet's Last Name]: Thank you for your submission, [“Name of Poem”], I regret that we cannot use your poem. I highly recommend that you look at issue 8 and 9, and soon, issue 10, to get a better idea of what we looking for. The competition is fierce, so you might want to pay extra careful attention to spelling and punctuation errors. I make them all the time myself, but I am thankful for “spell check” in my word processor to catch most of them. It might benefit you, too. Good luck in placing your poem. Best regards, John C. Mannone, Silver Blade Poetry Editor

Good News!!

The 99th agent is interested in the novel: praise the lord! Can you believe? Spoke on the phone today and came up with a plan for a reasonable revision. The comments were very apt and well-considered; the novel will be better for the effort. How about that folks? A little forward motion after all. Thank you for all your good thoughts, prayers, and breath-holding. I have to revise by August 1st, a tall order, but tonight I celebrate (and sleep), and let it sink in. Here is part of the joyous email received today: "Sorry for the delay. I finished [title of novel] and I’m a huge fan of the book. The premise is fantastic and the last half of the book completely drew me in, and even left me breathless in the rush to the conclusion. That being said, I had some thoughts as I was reading and wanted to see if you’re interested in working together editorially."

Well, Now, That's Nice

This just in about my rewrite from the enthusiastic big-time agent after the encouraging communication with his assistant.

Dear [My Real Name]:
    Well I just finished reading your manuscript. Brilliant, devastating, and ultimately hopeful – it’s one of the best pieces of fiction to cross my desk in quite some time…but I just don’t think I’d be the best agent for it. While I loved the writing ([“nice quote from my novel.”] My God) and the squalor of it all, I had trouble seeing the entire story outside of the close, limited scope of [aspect of novel]. In the end, despite myself, I just don’t think I’d be this novel’s best advocate, and instead of wrestling with my decision I wanted to get back to you promptly so you can shop it elsewhere. If you’ll allow it, I would like to share it with another agent here, [Name], because I think she might just have the perfect sensibility for [Title of Novel]. Please let me know if this would be alright, and if there’s an updated version of the MS you would like her to see, send that at your earliest convenience.
    Again, thank you for sharing and know how seriously I took this. Please excuse this note’s brevity, and know that I wish you only the best with this project and all else.
    Best,
    [Name I will reveal at some point]

I wrote to say, yes, of course, please send it to your perfect colleague; also to ask what his comment meant; maybe it's something I can use to sharpen the book even more.  So, hold your breath a little longer, anonymice.  We're on this road together now.

Rosemary Ahern Wins A GAK!

You are a nice lady, Rosemary Ahern! You are a decent human being!

I do not say this because you liken my work to Flannery O'Connor's fiction, but because at any moment your letter could have gone snarky to justify your decision to pass. You could have easily turned on the writer's humble abilities to make yourself feel better about the sorry state of publishing, but you did not. Your letter said this: "As discussed, my reasons for passing have mostly to do with a fear of creating a kind of modest track record that tends to accompany a first short story collection. When it comes time to publish the brilliant first novel, those figures are lurking in booksellers' computers to frustrate the best efforts of all of us. The same old story, I'm afraid. That said, I'm deeply impressed with Writer, Rejected's range as a writer....[BLAH, BLAH, BLAH]...(I thought about Flannery O'Connor more than once while reading these stories....)"

(This leads me to worry that you may some day actually meet a true modern-day Flannery O'Connor and pass her right by, which I hope now you will not ever do, no matter what detrimental effect you think the industry might have on the good woman's career. Please, for God's sake, just publish her!)

But my point here is really just that a rejection can be a fun and flattering affair. My point is that kind-hearted rejections are all too rare. I therefore award you, Rosemary Ahern, the Golden Apple of Kindness from Writer, Rejected. (Otherwise known as GAK! ) For what it's worth. Which admittedly (since, like you, many have also chosen not to publish me) isn't much.