Kindest cuts?

ymmatrysk said:

Hi all, I'm new-ish.
Anyone else feel like the nice rejections hurt worse than the form letters or the snarky ones? I had an agent send me just the nicest rejection, I had to read it twice to understand if she was passing or not. I'm not sure why her kind words stung so much more than some of the ones that amounted to 'your novel is crap'.
Anyway, gripe gripe gripe...
Ymma

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It's probably because a standard "get lost" isn't even hitting the target, while a "nice rejection" [sic] is a near-miss.

If I ever get a "nice rejection," I'll let you know for sure.

A near-miss rejection is almost like rotten acceptance, if there is such a thing!

There's a very fine line there and you often don't realize just how close you are. Maybe a little more polish and bam! That acceptance is very encouraging, in my oppinion.
Tri

Ymma,

I think I'd be around the room if I received a nice rejection. Keep sending that baby out, sounds to me like you're really close.

Joanne

Hi ymmatrysk,

My reaction is the opposite of yours. An onslaught of form rejection letters (from magazine editors, I've never subbed a book) really brings me down. But a kind letter, even a nice FORM letter, shoots me a glimmer of hope that keeps me going.

Does that make me sound like a pollyanna? In real life I'm quite sarcastic!

You're not wrong Rose. You're very close to hitting the mark. Developing craft can be almost akin to going through learning stages. Form rejections generally follow new beginings. Written rejections are indications that the editor was touched or affected somehow. Glowing rejections are signs that something is very correct and on its way--these kinds give great boosts to the ego, and sometimes I actually look forward to them. Tri

Hi, all

I once got a beautiful letter from a publishing company. It was gold embossed too and from the way it sounded, I thought it was an acceptance because what they wrote was so complimentary. The last line killed that thought when the sentence read, "Sorry, we can't use it."

So, from now on, I don't want any nice rejection letters, I just want nasty acceptance letters and checks!

Hope you all get lots of acceptances, Susie

To me, makes no difference. Mean or kind, no is still no. I want to hear yes.

sherri234 said:

So, from now on, I don't want any nice rejection letters, I just want nasty acceptance letters and checks!

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YEAH! Me too!

It's a strange day that a writer is stunned by a kind rejection. Says a lot about rejecting editors, don't it?

I agree, though. A no is still a no.