Received my first rejection slip for Ron the Body the other day.
(Some of you might have pieced together I’m still writing the third draft. How can I get rejected when it ain’t done? Simply because I fired off a pitch to an agent when I hid the quarter-mark; you only need the first few chapters and a synopsis. I figured, correctly, it would motivate me to get the rest of draft 3 written but fast.)
It’s not the first rejection notice I’ve received – I’ve been shopping around in move and Fell Legacy for a while, with no success. But both of those books are tough sells – a publisher has every right to second guess whether they could bring them to market. They’re both pitched a bit askew from easy genre fit. (in move sits somewhere between contemporary, popular and young adult lit; Fell Legacy is a fantasy novel treated as horror movie/character study.) Plus, they’re far from perfect works of fiction – I’m still finding a voice in in move and in Fell Legacy I never really mastered the prose style I tried. So rejections for those have been easy to understand. Heck, sometimes I’ve received actual responses rather than form rejections, which have been invariably positive in the process of saying no.
It is, however, the first time I’ve tried to get interest for Ron the Body, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about getting a no. The reasons for my sanguine response to previous rejections don’t really apply here. Ron fits clearly into the subgenre of contemporary lit that uses a fantastical element to explore its ideas (c.f. The Time-Traveller’s Wife and The Fortress of Solitude). And my craft has improved out of sight. Ron is good to go. More than anything else I’ve produced, it could hold its own on a bookstore’s shelves.
But you know what? I’m actually surprisingly cool with getting bounced back. (If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be blogging this, for one thing.) The old thing about needing to rack up a whole bunch of rejections seems to have been taken to heart somewhere along the line. I don’t bear any ire towards the agency that said no, and I don’t feel discouraged about the potential of the book. There’s any number of reasons they could have said no, including that they thought it was terrible, and I’m cool with all of them. It’s all part of the game, right?
So, then. This post marks the beginning of the rest. Onwards.
4 thoughts on “Rejected!”
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I think you need to take scans of the RTB rejection list and then make a collage of it as it grows (for everyone’s amusement). A virtual wall of rejection, if you will. It is important to have an enduring reminder of failure to look back upon when RTB is accepted, goes bestseller and you get all famous. It’ll keep you grounded in those snazzy basketball boots of yours. That and the buggered finger…
Oh and on the subject of RTB, can you send me the rest of 3.0 already? HURRY UP!
…or copies of fell legacy or in move for that matter… reading material GREATLY appreciated. I’m waiting for a baby to arrive, and reading is much, much better than biting my fingernails.
Rejection slips are meant to be good training for the inevitable clueless negative reviews. When RTB is eventually published, you will be prepared.
Remember also that Matthew Reilly was rejected by every publisher in Australia before becoming the country’s best-selling writer.
Eh. Rejections suck, but at least you’re sending the book out, like. Best of luck etc.