The lovely and multi-talented Kate Belle has popped in today to give us some tips on rejection letters - the bane of every writer's existence, yet so important in helping us hone our craft.
Take it away, Kate!
Dear John...
...Thank you for submitting [insert title]. While your writing is [insert complimentary adjective] and the plot [insert alternative complimentary adjective], the piece lacked [insert hard won skill you thought you’d mastered]. Unfortunately we are unable to offer you a contract on this occassion, but encourage you to submit again and wish you the very best for the future.
Sound familiar?
After writing seriously for over five years I’m no stranger to rejection. I got my first one at age sixteen. At the time I was so devastated I didn’t write another thing for twenty years. On reflection, the rejection itself wasn’t that bad. I submitted two hand-written poems, filled with teenage angst, along with a hand-written submission letter (come on – it was the early eighties), to Deakin University literary magazine.
Yeah, it’s funny now, but at the time I had no idea how completely out of my depth I was. Their response was gentle enough – thanks for submitting, unfortunately it’s not right for our magazine, perhaps you should consider submitting to Dolly magazine. It was this last bit that really got me miffed. Didn’t they realise that these poems were far too deep for Dolly? I was a serious writer, not some producer of fluff (my, how times have changed!).
Tackling the inevitable, diabolical rejection letter is part of the rough road to publication. It’s a necessary rite of passage. It helps you grow the required rhino skin over your oh-so-sensitive creative soul. And believe me, as a writer, you’re going to need it once you’re published.
Rejection letters come in many forms and, in my experience, most of them these days break the news as gently as they can. Occasionally, when your manuscript catches a publisher on a bad day, it might come across as a little terse, but take heart. The best of the best have all suffered humiliating rejection letters from publishers who make no effort whatsoever to protect an author’s delicate sensibilities (see
Famous
Author’s Harshest Rejection Letters if you want to see how bad it can get).
But ‘No’ is still ‘No’, and no matter how sweetly it’s said it still deflates you and drives you to the nearest drug of choice – chocolate, bourbon, shopping, voodoo. Most of the red wine hangover’s I’ve suffered in the past five years have been a direct result of rejection letters, because it just plain hurts when someone doesn’t love your baby as much as you do.
Everyone kept telling me that this was part of the writer’s journey and I wouldn’t be a proper writer if I hadn’t been rejected as often as biggies (800 times for CS Lewis!). In the end, and to save my liver, I had to change the way I viewed rejection. Instead of falling into a hopeless, weeping (and drunken) heap of self-loathing, I started to count each rejection as one step closer to publication. This attitude helped enourmously, because suddenly the rejections had a purpose in my journey (other than just making me feel like a failure).
After this mind-shift I noticed the rejections hurt less. Without realising it I was growing the much needed rhino skin every author needs once their work arrives in the public sphere. Needed because once you’re actually published the potential scale for rejection expands exponentially, and you have absolutely no control over it.
And the reality is that wading through all those rejections only makes the first publishing contract all the sweeter. Finding a publisher who loves your work, wants to share it with their audience, is like falling in love all over again. The grass is greener, the air is fresher and bright, bubbly champagne replaces the more reflective red wine binges.
So save those rejections in a little folder and count them as steps toward being published so when you’re famous you can look back and say that at least you got there faster than CS Lewis!
Breaking the Rules:
Grace is a beautiful woman in complete control of her world. A long time ago she chose a career over children and marriage, and has never regretted it. Then Ramon Mendez walks into her office. Ramon is about to commence his PhD, a work on erotic literature, and from the outset there is something about him that makes Grace’s blood run hot. Aware of the need to maintain her professional reputation, she rejects his advances, but he persists. And during their intimate supervision sessions, her defences start to crumble, for Ramon’s work is exposing desires within Grace she never knew existed.
Bloom:
Thirty-six-year-old Emma’s life looks as perfect as could be. She loves her solid, straight-laced husband Gary, who has given her three beautiful, if spoilt, children and a secure life. But something is missing. Gary hardly notices her anymore and she feels frumpy and invisible. Her friend, Lisa, talks her into joining a social boot camp class at the local gym. Emma immediately recognises their instructor as the gorgeous runner she sees each evening while walking her dog in the park. He introduces himself as Ramon Mendez. In spite of herself Emma is besotted.
Before long her mind is filled with guilty fantasies of him. One evening, when things at home have become too much to bear, she bumps into him alone in the park. An opportunity presents itself and no one need ever know. Ramon promises and delivers everything that’s missing from her marriage – passion, romance and excitement – but Emma must discover if they are the things she really wants.
Author Bio:
Kate Belle
Kate is a woman of many passions who juggles her pens with the rest of her life. She holds a tertiary qualification in chemistry, half a diploma in naturopathy and a diploma in psychological astrology. Kate believes in living a passionate life and has ridden a camel through the Australian desert, fraternised with hippies in Nimbin, had a near birth experience and lived on nothing but porridge and a carrot for 3 days.
Kate lives, writes and loves in Melbourne, juggling her strange, secret affairs with her male characters with her much loved partner and daughter, and a menagerie of neurotic pets.
Where to chat with Kate:
Blog/website
Facebook
Twitter
Thanks Imogene, it's great to be here and e-meet your lovely followers. The
indomitable Ms Nix asked if I'd talk about rejection letters, something I've got
years of experience with. So much so, I can write one with my eyes
closed...
Thanks for joining us today Kate! There is some very valid points that you have raised.
Imogene
POISONED
PAWN
Author Bio:
