Rejection Letters

By Marie Tuhart

Rejection letters are not fun and no writer wants to receive one, but it happens all the time. I don't care if you’re a brand new writer, or a writer that has been published, you will receive or have received rejection letters.

Think of that rejection letter as a badge of honor. A badge that says "I'm serious about my writing." A badge that shows you're not only writing but submitting your work.

Yes, rejection letters hurt, some more than others. Sometimes you have to put the rejection letter away until you can objectively look at it. Other times, it’s a form rejection that you only want to file away. I've had many rejection letters, some I had to put aside for 2-3 days before I could objectively read the letter to see why and editor or agent rejected the book.

In almost every rejection letter I've received I've learned something. Sometimes a single word or two will stand out, whole sentences or sometimes it's what's not written that you have to read between the lines, so to speak, to understand.

Some of things that have stuck out for me are:

• Story is poorly written - for me this happened to me early in my career where I had serious grammar issues, typo's and my writing mechanics were not up to par.
• Characters are not three dimensional – okay, this meant I didn't know enough about my characters to make them come alive
• Characters are not developed – pretty much the same as the characters are not three dimensional, and also the conflict isn't believable for these characters.
• Characters actions are not believable – this means I have serious motivational problems, I'm not showing the characters motivations.
• Not right for us – this doesn't mean your story is no good, it means the publisher or agent you've submitted to, this particular story is not right for them. Another story may be fine. And to double check your target market.
• Don't know how to market the book – Maybe you're writing an edge of your seat romantic thriller with a big paranormal element. What they're saying is their not sure if the can market it as a thriller or should it be a paranormal. While it's a romance, there are so many sub-genres of romance; you have to make sure you're not throwing in too many of the sub-genres into one. Make it more of a romantic thriller and remove the paranormal element. Of if the paranormal element can't be removed, down play the thriller element. I'm not saying you can't cross over; you can, but remember the editor has to sell the marketing department on your book.

Don't take rejection letters personally. I know that's very hard to do. Editors and agents are human, and sometimes a book may hit a nerve, or they've bought five books almost the same as you've in the last three months.

Some suggestions what to do when you get a rejection letter:

• Look for key words "characters, plot, marketing, unbelievable" these are all words that go to learning the craft of writing
• Check your rejections letters do you see a pattern – do they constantly say things like: characters are not engaging; characters are one dimensional; character conflicts are not strong enough. This tells me that I needed to work on characterization and motivation.
• Be careful that your book is not plot heavy – remember if you're writing romance, romances are character driven.

The main thing to remember a rejection is not always a bad thing, it is part of the writer's journey and you can learn from them.