On Twitter yesterday, Penguin executive editor Anne Sowards posted “An offer I made was turned down. Everybody gets rejected.” And it’s worth reiterating — rejection isn’t just something that happens to authors.
Rejection happens to agents, when we fall in love with a manuscript only to find the author already has multiple offers of representation, and chooses to go with someone else.
Rejection happens to editors, who jump through all the hoops of their internal acquisitions process to put together an offer, only to fall short in an auction, or see the author go with someone else for whatever reason.
Rejection happens to all of us. And it may be worth bearing in mind all along the road towards publication.
3 thoughts on ““Everybody Gets Rejected””
This post came at the perfect time for me. Thanks for the reminder!
Shameless self-promotion time:
Two friends and I have started a blog called Corrected Proofs- we take ARCs we've gotten through our various clubs and "correct" them (with heavy doses of snark). Everyone gets rejected- we bitter unpublished writers get to reject the books that are taking our RIGHTFUL PLACE ON THE MARKET (/sarcasm).
If anyone wants to check it out: http://correctedproofs.blogspot.com/
The rejection is especially tough after the WAITING that is an inevitable part of it, so thought this post about waiting might be of interest: http://billanddavescocktailhour.com/bad-advice-we…. Alas, all part of building our stamina as writers. The best cure, as ever, is to be writing something new!