It is, indeed, extremely disappointing and unprofessional when a writer whose book has been rejected for publication, in this instance, by RockWay Press, goes on a public terrorist campaign to darken not only the reputation and good name of a publishing house but those of its authors as well.
I will not reveal the identity of the author whose work was rejected and who has virtually filled this forum with lies and blatant untruths, but I assure you that this author was never offered a publishing contract with RockWay Press, nor was the author ever told that the book had been accepted for publication by RockWay Press (neither in writing nor orally over the telephone, the latter of which is how RockWay notifies authors' that their books have been accepted for publication).
This author's book was pornographic and, furthermore, contained explicit rape and sodomy scenes involving children.
As I informed this author in the lengthy and detailed rejection letter, RockWay does not now, nor will it ever, publish pornography or books that explicitly describe sexual assaults on and torture of women and children (nor on men, for that matter).
RockWay will never promote that kind of writing, does not condone any of the gratuitous sexual violence, S&M practices, or pedophilia which that book depicted (in explicit, graphic, gruesome, and gratuitous detail), and will never accept or publish said kind of work.
Here is a copy of the rejection letter which I personally sent to the author whose book was rejected and who has posted approximately 3/4 of the recent negative and untrue posts on this forum thread, denigrating and slandering RockWay's reputation and the reputation of its authors:
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Dear [author's full name]:
I have read your submission, [book title], which I allowed you to send to me since [editor's name], who is one of RockWay's authors, worked as an editor on the book with you. I read the book in its entirety. You seem to have done a good deal of hard work on the novel, and [editor's name] did an excellent editing job.
RockWay Press does not publish pornography, however, and the scenes in this novel which contain sex & violence are so brutal and graphic that they cannot be called "erotic scenes", and RockWay has a policy of NOT publishing books which contain gratuitous and unecessarily explicit violence; graphic and explicit sex scenes which do not enhance character development, urgency, or advance the plot; books which contain either implicit or explicit violence against children or women; or books which contain sado-masochistic themes -against anyone - in a gruesome or grotesque manner or in a way which does not contribute to the artistry of the book nor further its plot.
Even if your book were brilliantly written and certain to become a financial and critical success, RockWay would be unable to publish it on principle: RockWay does not wish to make that kind of writing available to the marketplace.
I do not send form letters to the authors whose work I reject. I tell them the truth about why their work is not appropriate for RockWay Press. Your writing itself, [author's name] is satisfactory, and some of the characters are developed sufficiently.
However, had [editor's name] not edited this book and asked permission to submit it on your behalf, I would not have read the entire manuscript: it is gratuitously pornographic and contains unnecessarily explicit and extremely violent rape and sodomy scenes.
Indeed, had I known in advance that the book contained pornographic scenes and was about characters committing pedophilia (described in unbelievably graphic detail), I would never have permitted you to submit it to RockWay Press in the first place, whether or not [editor's name] had edited the book.
I would suggest that you check the listings in the Small Press Directory in the index under "pornography" and submit to the publishers who do accept such books. I'm sure that you will be able to find a home for your book with a more appropriate publisher who knows how to market to your particular audience.
Additionally, a signed and notarized contract submitted with a manuscript does not in any way obligate RWP to publish your book; [the submission of a signed and notarized contract with a manuscript is for RockWay's protection, [author's name].
Several unprofessional writers whose books have been accepted by RockWay have intentionally not signed their contracts and have used our acceptance as an illegitimate, devious, and deceptive way to acquire agent representation [in the hopes of illegally acquiring a "better" offer from a larger publisher; this behaviour is unethical and illegal since, once a book contract has been offered and accepted, the publisher who offered the contract has the legal right to publish the book].
Therefore, to protect ourselves and the time we spend reading, editing, and critiquing a book, RockWay now requires that all submissions include a signed and notarized contract. For our legal protection, [author's name].
[The contract you sent to RockWay Press] is not legally valid or binding until it is completely executed, i.e., signed by me [RockWay's publisher] and a copy of said signed, notarized, and fully executed contract returned to the author.
Since I am not accepting [book title] for publication - with or without revisions - the contract you signed has been destroyed. RockWay has no obligation, either moral or legal, to publish the book; and you are free to submit said manuscript to other publishers.
Additionally, as indicated on our website, once a manuscript has been rejected, it is shredded, destroyed, and discarded in order to protect the intellectual property rights of any writer or author who submits to us on a query or through a contest. Therefore, as soon as I informed [editor's name] that I had rejected [book title], the hard-copy of the manuscript was shredded and disposed of in a manner that would prevent anyone else from recovering it. Therefore, the physical manuscript that was submitted for consideration cannot be returned to you: it was destroyed several weeks ago -- after I rejected it.
And may I say, [author's name], out of professional courtesy and for your own ethical edification if you wish to remain in the publishing business, that it is completely inappropriate for your [parent] to call me and leave a threatening message with [RockWay Press'] answering service.
Not only is it inappropriate and unprofessional, [author's name], threatening someone's physical well-being is a prosecutable crime.
If you need representation for your books, I would strongly suggest that you find a reputable agent who will take on your work, attempt to sell it, and remain in contact with the publishing houses, publishers, and editors to whom the manuscript is submitted.
It is quite obvious that your [parent] is not a professional agent because (1) [your parent] did not pitch the book to me, (2) [your parent] did not submit the manuscript to me, (3) [your parent and I] do not have a professional, working [publisher/agent] relationship, (4) [your parent] behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional manner [by threatening me and my employees with physical harm], and (5) the explicit threat which [your parent] left on RockWay's voicemail system is contraindicated by the ethical behavioural guidelines established by SAR and adhered to by all legitimate agents.
Please do not submit any future manuscripts to RockWay Press, [author's name], neither through a legitimate agent nor as an entry in our annual international writing competitions. We do not publish your kind of writing, and, furthermore, we will not deal with any author who behaves unprofessionally or authorizes a third party, i.e., your [parent], in this instance, to behave inappropriately or unprofessionally on the author's behalf. (There is a clause in the contract you signed which discusses this in great detail.)
Unfortunately, [author's name], RockWay does not publish your kind of work, cannot accept it on principle, and will not be publishing it. Your signed and notarized contract, along with the hard-copy of [book's title], was shredded and disposed of immediately after I informed [editor's name] that we would not be offering you a contract for pubication on [book title]. This is done in order to protect your intellectual property and keep it from coming into someone else's possession.
Best of luck with your writing career. I'm sure if you get a legitimate agent or do sufficient research into the marketplace, you will, indeed, find a home for your novel. There are certainly plenty of publishers who would be delighted and happy to have you as an author, publishers who would know how to appropriately market your work and reach your target audience.
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RockWay Press is a traditional publishing house, so it does, indeed, reject books for a variety of reasons. Rather than send the writers a form letter - as many publishers do - I explain, in specific terms and great detail, exactly why RockWay cannot accept the book.
I have been a published author for over thirty years, and I have never received such a rejection letter myself, so, when my own work has been rejected, I have never known if it is because something in the book doesn't work; if the particular editor to whom my agent submitted it simply didn't like the topic; whether the publishing house already had a book on that topic coming out soon; whether the publishing house previously published a book on that topic and, not making as many sales on that previous book as expected, did not wish to "take a chance" on another book on the same topic even though it was written by a different author; or whether the publishing house simply does not know how to market such a book.
That is why I inform the writer of the rejected manuscript exactly why it was rejected or was considered inappropriate for our house.
Of course, writers and authors have a right to feel disappointed, angry, sad, depressed, etc. when one of their books has been rejected. Those are totally normal, acceptable feelings, and all authors experience them to varying degrees in their writing and publishing careers. The publishing business is a very mercurial one, and a book that might have been a bestseller last month may be rejected by all the publishers to whom it is submitted next month.
Writers and authors who've had their work rejected have every right to vent their negative feelings with their friends, partners, children, parents, agents, writing colleagues, therapists, etc.
I believe they even have the right to vent their frustration at the process of becoming a published author, which always involves rejection if the writers are dealing with legitimate publishers; and that writers and authors have the right to vent said frustrations in a public forum such as this.
What I do not believe, however, is that anyone has the right, in either a private or a public forum, to spread lies, unsubstantiated rumors, unverified information presented as "fact", or slander about a publishing house, its employees, or its authors. Of course, I cannot prevent an author whose book has been rejected from telling lies -- in public or in private -- about RockWay Press and its authors.
However, if those writers choose to do as this writer has done -- to spread lies, untruths, innuendo, and slander about RockWay Press or its authors in a public forum, and I find out about it, I will respond in the said forum, albeit in a professional manner rather than in a way which would impugn the writer's character as this writer has chosen to do by spreading lies about RockWay Press and its authors.
RockWay Press does not reject authors: we reject manuscripts. The rejection of a manuscript is, in no way, a commentary on the author's writing unless I specifically tell the author that his/her writing needs work -- and I never do that in a public forum. Such information is for the author only.
If this author, whose work was rejected by RockWay with the courtesy of a detailed explanation of the rejection of the work, or any other writer / author cannot emotionally handle the almost constant rejection that all authors receive, then I would strongly recommend that said author(s) change their career field or publish and distribute their own work.
Publishing your own work, though it will not be carried by bookstores, is the only way to avoid rejection in this business. Rejection is an intimate and indivisible part of the writing business. Writers who cannot live with the stress, disappointment, frustration, anger, and sadness of such rejection should find a job in another field, one that does not intrinsically involve a 99.99999% rejection rate.
Spreading lies and blatant untruths about publishers who reject your work will not get it accepted somewhere else. In fact, it will harm the potential career of an author who engages in such viciously unethical behaviour, as the writer of most of the entries in this forum has done. Whether you know it or not, and despite the huge number of books that get published each year, the publishing world is a small, intimate business, and the names and reputations of authors who behave inappropriately, unprofessionally, or unethically quickly become known to most editors, publishers, and agents.
If you wish to increase the number of rejections you receive, then, please, by all means, engage in this kind of back-stabbing, mendacious behaviour. And please do be sure to do it in a public forum so that as many people as possible will be able to read it. The greater the lies and the larger your audience, the higher the number of rejections you'll receive.
However, I would suggest that, if you really want to exponentially increase the number of rejections you receive, you become an actor. It's the only business I know of where talented, highly motivated, and hard-working people are rejected even more often than writers.
Sincerely,
Alexandria Szeman
Publisher / Executive Editor
RockWay Press
