Favorite rejection quotes

Status
Not open for further replies.

dgiharris

Disgruntled Scientist
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
6,735
Reaction score
1,833
Location
Limbo
My favorite rejection.

"I liked the story, but it was too short, I needed more."

***Their guidelines were to submit a 100 word story***

o.k. so you want me to write you a longer story though you state stories can't exceed 100 words?

Mel...
 

circlexranch

Terri Coop has been known to write
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
749
Reaction score
149
Location
Fort Scott, Kansas
Website
readinrittinrhetoric.blogspot.com
This fits into this topic, it is my favorite rejection ever because I got to reap a tiny bit of vindication and revenge.

This most cherished rejection came from a well-respected e-zine. They said that my tale was 'insufficiently literary and their publication had grown beyond that type of story.'

Sigh . . . mild chagrin and disappointment. Oh well, package it up and submit it again.

This time the story was accepted and published with the correction of a couple of typos. And, it was published right next to a story written by the same editor that had penned the above-quoted rejection note.

Gotta love it! Terri
 

James M M Baldwin

Caught Somewhere in Time
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 25, 2006
Messages
135
Reaction score
12
Location
Planet X
Here is an exerpt from my blog

Top ten actual rejections to my queries:

Honorable Mention. We wish you the best of luck with your marketing efforts
#10 I wish you every success in finding the best representative for your work
#9 I wish you the best of luck with the project
#8 We wish you the best of luck in your search for the right agent
#7 Good luck in finding a home for your book
#6 Good luck in your quest for publication
#5 We wish you all the best in finding other representation
#4 We urge you to submit your work to other agencies
#3 We hope you will soon find an agent with whom you can establish a productive relationship
#2 Our team appreciated the chance to hear about your project
And the #1 actual rejection to my queries
Thanks so much, this looks very interesting, but...


Hot off the press. A new #1 actual query rejection has just come in,
Thank you for thinking of Blankity Blank Publishing, but the story line is too close to something we are already considering.

 

Zellie

Rock like an elk!
Requiescat In Pace
Registered
Joined
Oct 2, 2008
Messages
89
Reaction score
11
Location
On dreams and chains
Website
www.zellie.info
My favorite so far was a rejection to an e-query. I got the rejection maybe 10 minutes after I sent it: "I greatly apologize for delay in my response to your query...."
 

Vandal

In the Center of things
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Messages
1,279
Reaction score
1,042
Age
64
Location
The Outer Limits
This one puzzled me:

Dear Robin Parks,

Thank you for sending me your chapters from FAMISHED. I enjoyed reading...(he goes on to decline).


Problem: I'm not Robin and that ain't my book.
 

SusanH

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
447
Reaction score
98
Well, I think I hit the jackpot. From an agent that "loves" working with new authors and "loves" memoirs.....

Literally 10 seconds after I hit the sent button
"Thank you ,but I do not feel I am the right agent for your work."
I also got the "Very intresting." also today....

Am I being pathetic about loving to get home from work just to see how many rejections I got?
 

Wayne K

Banned
Joined
Dec 3, 2008
Messages
21,564
Reaction score
8,082
This one puzzled me:

Dear Robin Parks,

Thank you for sending me your chapters from FAMISHED. I enjoyed reading...(he goes on to decline).


Problem: I'm not Robin and that ain't my book.


Imagine if he was accepting it.
 

SusanH

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
447
Reaction score
98
Well, I just got the best one yet. Has anyone gotten this rejection.

Susan:
Thank you for your query. We appreciate you sharing your work with our agency. We did review your proposal,[:Shrug:I sent a query, not a proposal] and unfortunately we are going to pass on representing it. The premise just didn't resonate with us as much as we would have liked. Your writing does show promise and we wish you the best in your search for representation. Your book deserves an agent who can put the requisite enthusiasm behind it.[ :Shrug: Are the saying they aren't good agents and they don't have what it takes to get me published???]
We appreciate the hard work and diligence needed to get in the door, and since this is a highly subjective business, you may well find success elsewhere. We wish you all the best with your writing.
Regards,
 

yeswecan

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 23, 2008
Messages
99
Reaction score
2
Got a recent rejection from the Liza Dawon agency and for some reason it really irritated me. I deleted it but it went something like this:
"Sorry for the impersonal reply but we wanted to get back to you as quickly as possible..."

Gee, how considerate of you to reject my e-query so quickly, right before the holidays!
Let's rub it in our faces next time...Ho, ho, ho to you too!
 

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
Thank you for your query. We appreciate you sharing your work with our agency. We did review your proposal,[I sent a query, not a proposal] and unfortunately we are going to pass on representing it. The premise just didn't resonate with us as much as we would have liked. Your writing does show promise and we wish you the best in your search for representation. Your book deserves an agent who can put the requisite enthusiasm behind it.[ Are the saying they aren't good agents and they don't have what it takes to get me published???]
We appreciate the hard work and diligence needed to get in the door, and since this is a highly subjective business, you may well find success elsewhere. We wish you all the best with your writing.
Regards,

Boilerplate, I'm afraid. I've received numerous incarnations of this rejection, in nearly exact, perhaps even verbatim, words. Your first signal should be your own observation that you sent a query and not a proposal. Their quote "We did review your proposal" translates into actual English as "We ain't got time to look at the dam thing". Bin it, ignore it, and move on.

caw
 

SusanH

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
447
Reaction score
98
Yeah, that caught my eye too. I figure many of them have the same rejection letter. I thought about writing back and telling them I didn't send a proposal and their agency must suck if they can't be honest in their words, but I know they would just delete it. They don't care...... In my case, I hope they eat those words soon....
 

Wayne K

Banned
Joined
Dec 3, 2008
Messages
21,564
Reaction score
8,082
"Not my cup of tea" I got the other day. If I may vent for a F-ing second. I sat down and wrote a 106,000 word manuscript and spent a half an hour writing her a query letter, to get this glib little note from someone who would be nothing without writers. They ask for this and that and excellence and all that BS and then she doesn't even have the decency to at least send a standard rejection form. I would love to score an agent, but I pray it isn't some aloof C like her.
 
Last edited:

RBSHoo

One of those quiet-but-smart guys...
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2009
Messages
32
Reaction score
7
Right there with you.

I just got this exact rejection email.


Well, I just got the best one yet. Has anyone gotten this rejection.

Susan:
Thank you for your query. We appreciate you sharing your work with our agency. We did review your proposal,[:Shrug:I sent a query, not a proposal] and unfortunately we are going to pass on representing it. The premise just didn't resonate with us as much as we would have liked. Your writing does show promise and we wish you the best in your search for representation. Your book deserves an agent who can put the requisite enthusiasm behind it.[ :Shrug: Are the saying they aren't good agents and they don't have what it takes to get me published???]
We appreciate the hard work and diligence needed to get in the door, and since this is a highly subjective business, you may well find success elsewhere. We wish you all the best with your writing.
Regards,
 

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
29,138
Reaction score
8,563
Location
Toronto
Website
ktcraig.com
This for a short story submission rejected:

"It's not you. Somebody shit in my corn flakes this morning."
 

SusanH

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
447
Reaction score
98
I am so tired of hearing "I'm not the right agent for this". I wish someone would tell me why they don't like my MS....sigh....
 

ladyvincenza

user-set title
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2008
Messages
398
Reaction score
13
Location
Boston
Website
www.sarahtrachtenberg.com
Big time West Coast agent wrote, "I really like your writing, the story held my interest all the way to the end, but I've learned that when I haven't followed my instinct I always regret it later, and my instinct tells me to pass."

My immediate reaction: Give me a flying break! Thanks for the useful comment. Now, several years later, I realize that might have been one of the most honest, really saying, "I don't know why the hay I'm passing, but I am."


If a story that holds the agent's interest that much and that the agent likes doesn't convince her, than what the heck *would*?
?!?!?
 

Katrina S. Forest

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
2,053
Reaction score
280
Website
katrinasforest.com
A few of my favorites from form letters:

"I do not feel that I can be the champion of your manuscript."
Gotta love an agent who considers themselves a champion of their clients' work.

"Your work may have been rejected for any or none of the following reasons..." then going on to list lack of understanding the English language as a possible reason. Makes me worry about what kinds of stories they've gotten that they felt the need to add that.
 

Hillgate

On location
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,322
Reaction score
114
Location
Europe
Rejection doth not a reject make.

I think that's from Hamlet, the part where William Morris blew our protagonist's latest screenplay out the water.
 

Miss Plum

Sockpuppet
Banned
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
1,570
Reaction score
187
I'm saving all my rejections. When I get my book published, I'm going to send it to everyone who rejected it along with a copy of their rejections. I'll be nice about it, I promise.
 

joeythesquash

hey ho, let's go
Registered
Joined
Apr 26, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
New Jersey
Website
www.outpost100.com
just got this one

"I only add a handful of new writers to my client roster each year, so I search for a unique voice, finely-honed writing skills, stellar world building talent, characters that jump off the page and a story that pulls me in from the first word and doesn't let go."

I guess my story doesn't do that, ha-ha.

If she were offering me feedback, maybe I'd consider this constructive - but this was part of a FORM REJECTION letter.

A simple "not interested" would probably be better, you know?
 
Last edited:

SusanH

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
447
Reaction score
98
I got a personalized rejection yesterday which told me I had a good query and an intresting concept but that memoirs are hard to market right now and she was concentrating on her clients at this time. It was stated very nicely and I hope she just wasn't yanking my chain although she did not say submit later when the memoir market was better. If she was just trying to spare my feelings, I would rather have her say it didn't work and why. I guess I do feel good she sent a personalized one and not a form....
 
Status
Not open for further replies.