I don't know how many people out there reading this are writers, but for those of you who aren't, let me share a little truth. Rejection sucks. I mean, that's generally true in life anyway, but there is a special kind of suck that can only be attributed to writing stories, pimping them out to the world, and getting a pile of rejection letters as your remuneration. Suck.
Personally, the quality of my rejection letters has improved in the two years I've been doing this. I don't get form responses from magazines anymore. I've graduated to getting form responses from agents. When I get rejected by magazines, they tend to go on at great length about why they didn't buy the story, or they say something polite, or whatever. No is no, but it does help me for future writing. Yeah.
The last two rejections I got were particularly nice. One of them, at 2300 words, was the longest rejection I've ever gotten. Included all the email correspondence among the editors, along with market suggestions and so forth. I was really hoping to make that sale, but oh well. It ended up with the editor saying "Hey, if you ever sell this, let me know. I'd like to buy a copy." Sigh. That one was from Interzone, for those of you in the know england-wise.
The most recent rejection was from a publisher. Very positive. They don't buy this kind of book, but they certainly felt it was publishable, even highly marketable. Just not by them. And, again, it ended with "When you sell this, send me email. I want to buy a copy."
So. The world seems to be full of editors and publishers who would like to buy my book, but not necessarily publish it themselves. How's that for irony?
Personally, the quality of my rejection letters has improved in the two years I've been doing this. I don't get form responses from magazines anymore. I've graduated to getting form responses from agents. When I get rejected by magazines, they tend to go on at great length about why they didn't buy the story, or they say something polite, or whatever. No is no, but it does help me for future writing. Yeah.
The last two rejections I got were particularly nice. One of them, at 2300 words, was the longest rejection I've ever gotten. Included all the email correspondence among the editors, along with market suggestions and so forth. I was really hoping to make that sale, but oh well. It ended up with the editor saying "Hey, if you ever sell this, let me know. I'd like to buy a copy." Sigh. That one was from Interzone, for those of you in the know england-wise.
The most recent rejection was from a publisher. Very positive. They don't buy this kind of book, but they certainly felt it was publishable, even highly marketable. Just not by them. And, again, it ended with "When you sell this, send me email. I want to buy a copy."
So. The world seems to be full of editors and publishers who would like to buy my book, but not necessarily publish it themselves. How's that for irony?
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The funny thing about the broken bone situation is that it doesn't hurt too bad. Can't walk on it, that's for sure, but at least it's not throbbing. As far as I'm concerned it's just going to be a three month pain in my ass.