Woohoo! A wonderful rejectiion!

I just got a rejection that made me (almsot!) as happy as if it were an acceptance!



A couple of months ago I sent a full solicited manuscript to Bloomsbury. That was the publisher at the top of my list, but I never really thought I had a chance because they are very literary and publish "different" things like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel (they also "took a chance" on Harry Potter so many years ago.) They're special!

Anyway, today the ms came back; I wasn't terribly dissapointed as i wasn't expecting much anyway. I wasn't even going to bother opening it; I expected some form rejection.

Here's what they wrote:

Thank you for sending me TLOTSG. You have a very readable prose style and I was impressed by your adept characterisation and also, in this case, the book's unusual and exotic setting. I think TLOTSG succrssfully manages to navigate between a commercial romantic saga set against some harsh social criticism of how Indians were persuaded to go to British Guyana (sic) on lengthy indentures, and how the Western world has to all intents hijacked the sugar industry.

I'm aware that you have a loyal and enthusistic readership, but I feel this is the sort of book which would sit happily on a commercial imprint but is unfortunately not so well suited to our tougher, more general list where I fear it would struggle for identity.
Because of this and also due to the size of our fiction list at present - which is effectively preventing us fro taking on new books right now - I am regretfully unable to take on your novel but remain confident that you will find a publisher who wil be more happy to take it on.

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This is the third rejection of the full (the other two were from agents, who said nothing except what they didn't like abouit it) and somehow it has given me new hope...

Next week I am sending it to an agent who wants an exclusive and has promised a quick read.
I know that I need to tell her which publishers have shown interest or rejected it; so I'll tel her aout this rejection; do you think it's enough to say "Bloomsbury rejected it" or should I add any of their comments? I know that she will form her own decision anyway...

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions and good wishes! I hate counting chickens before they're hatched and celebrating before the fact (I'm superstitious!) - but I really, really needed some signal that this wasn't the worst ms that ever escaped PA's clutches - it was that bad... I was getting scared to submit.
So this has given me a real, well-needed boost today.
Thanks, and keep your fingers crossed, friends!

reph said:

Julie W's idea strikes me as very sensible.

The rejection helps with where to send the ms. in the future.

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Yes - I've been thinking that myself. No need to tell her, unless she takes me on.

I solemnly apologize for the typos in the title of this thread and in my first post. I don't know why I always fail to type the second letter when a word ends in double consonants...

Anyway.
This rejection brings into sharp focus my basic problem in placing and classifying this novel: I'm balanced between classification as "commercial" (mainstream) or "literary". I've been aiming for literary becuase my last books were defined as "commercial" which led, I felt, to a dumbing down in their marketing. For instance, the jacket copy described the male character as "romantic" when he was anything BUT romantic (He was a MONK for heavens sake!) just to draw in female readers. The faint profile of a dreamy woman's face on the cover. And my third book, which was about music, failed to even mention the word "violin" in the jacket copy, because the marketing poeple thought that "Violin" and the whole classical music theme would be too high-brow for readers. Also, the blurbs they chose were from authors who were definitely highly commercial rather than literary.

All of that annoyed me, and I really want to get away from that stigma. What I feel is, that I write literay fiction, in that my themes are serious, I deal with important issues, and - I hope - encourage poeple to think about life and love. It's not just pure entertainment, not just a beach read. But I am also a bit old fashioned, and there's nothing at all "edjy" about my books, which I think is the direction literary fiction is going.


The Bloomsbury rejection put all this sharply into focus. The literary world is indeed tough and they have no time for love stories - love is so totally last year! Now if I had thrown in some "unusual" sex scenes between unlikely characters that might have worked...!!!

Now I realise I do have to aim for the commercial market, and hope to find a publisher which is more on my page as to the marketing.
Thanks for all your input!

PS and generally, I'd love to hear your wise words on literary vs commercial writing and reading. I know it has been done before but not in my AW lifetime!

JAlpha said:

Aruna,



I wrote an article last year for AW concerning some of the long standing features of literary and mainstream fiction. I purposely try to write things that straddle the line That will probably make my novel a tough fit as well, but it's the balance I'm most drawn to, as I suspect you are as well.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/specialty_writing/artless_fiction.htm

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Thanks for your encouragement, Janet... I read your article and it seems to me that my story has far more elements from your "literary" checklist than from the "mainstream". I think that what renders it mainstream/commercial is that it draws on the age-old - and I believe timeless - need of readers for a profound love-story, and - I hope - engages their emotions much more than is expected of literary fiction. I do notice, when reading literary fiction, that I am encouraged to "think" more than "feel" - as if the intellectual response is superior to the emotional. Which I believe is just plain wrong. I want to be intellectually as well as emotionally engaged while reading, and my quibble with most contemporary fictional works is that they are far too one-sided in this respect. So I guess that's part of the problem with placing this book, and it was most encouraging to find an out-and-out literary editor endorsing it.

Ok, let's see where this goes from here.

katee said:

I'm somewhat turned off by literary books because they tend to lack something satisfying. Then again, mainstream books can end up too light and fluffy, I think because they focus too much on what works in their genre without being special in and of themselves.

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That's exactly my complaint. Most of the lit. fiction I read just does not fulfill in the way I want fiction to fulfill. But I can't stand light fluff; that's just as unfulfilling. I want inteligent, profound books that make me care about the characters and what happens to them.

And ... excuse me while I go all fan-girly on you (sorry if it's inappropriate to do here!) ... I've read Of Marriageable Age, Peacocks Dancing and The Speech of Angels and I considered them quasi-literary - mainstream enough to have a satisfying story, but containing enough literary elements to be something special. I wish there were more books like them out there.

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Hi Colin, and welcome to AW! Glad you decided to join.