To vent or not to vent about rejections?

HoosierCowgirl

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Should we reply at all to a rejection?

I was thinking if a full was rejected, there had been some communication thus it would be courteous to at least say "Thank you for your time. I appreciated your interest."

Ann
 

Manat

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I think you should always reply, to a full or a partial, if someone has taken the time and effort to offer any comments or advice beyond a form letter. That's what's foolish with this person. A busy editor who's likely far more informed and experienced than anyone they might find in a critque group, takes the time to read the submission through, providing guidance and advice that might improve their work, and gets an hysterical slap in the face. I bet that's one editor that's gone right back to form rejections and will think twice before doing a personal one ever again.

If someone takes the time from a busy schedule to give you advice you should always say thank you, even when you don't agree.
 

mariedees

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I belong to a private forum with other authors I know and there we all discuss our rejections. That's what friends are for - to sympathize with you when you get a rejection. And if they're writing friends, perhaps to help you see where you need to make changes.

But I recommend never publicly discussing rejections for one simple reason - many agents and editors check out writers' blogs if a submission catches their eye. The last thing you want them to see if they're looking at the first few pages of your manuscript is exactly why the last editor rejected it. And the last thing they want to think is -- oh, my rejection letter is going to show up on this blog. At that point, you probably get a form rejection and the editor goes on to someone else.

I seldom talk about submissions or rejections, even in general terms because I don't want to create a sense that I've been sending a manuscript out and gathering rejections. Or a publisher to look at a submission trail at think "hmm, apparently we were tenth on the list of publishers she wants to work with." Even if they don't know why it was rejected by the others, they know it was. And that they weren't first.

Go to town griping about rejections with friends. Save the blog and public forums to brag about the good things that happen.
 

Nightmelody

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If an editor took the time to personally critique your submission, you should show some gratitude. At least they respected your work enough to do that, instead of a form R. Plus, why go public and cause bad blood with an acquiring editor? You might end up on her desktop next year--and maybe at a different publisher!
 

Deb Kinnard

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I only ever posted one rejection. It came via e-mail from an agent I'd never heard of and to whom I had never subbed anything. In fact, I was agented at the time. It was a rejection of "your work" and wishing me luck in finding an agency home.

I just couldn't take it. It was too funny. My bad side took over and I sent back an e-mail something similar to the following:

"Dear Agent: Thank you for your correspondence of the 22nd. I must inform you I have had a surpassingly bad week, and am in very fragile emotional condition. In fact, I regret that I cannot accept unsolicited rejections right now.

"Therefore I will consider you my agent of record and will expect your standard agency contract in the snail mail for my approval."

Sorry. I just couldn't help it.
 

Katrina S. Forest

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"Dear Agent: Thank you for your correspondence of the 22nd. I must inform you I have had a surpassingly bad week, and am in very fragile emotional condition. In fact, I regret that I cannot accept unsolicited rejections right now.

"Therefore I will consider you my agent of record and will expect your standard agency contract in the snail mail for my approval."

Wow, I'm so tempted to put that as my signature. Sadly, I think it would come back to bite me.
 

Becky Black

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I posted a blog post a couple of weeks ago about how anything posted on the ineternet will follow you forever, so I'd agree, never rant in a public or even passworded forum about a rejection and about how the agent/editor/publisher are clearly idiots of dubious parentage with an unhealthy predeliction for donkeys.

It's even dodgy doing it by email to close friends. An email can be shared with the world with one accidental click. Or a deliberate one! Friends fall out after all.

Rant only in person in some unrecorded manner (and not in the bathroom at a conference, where the agent or editor in question is, through narrative inevitability, sitting in the next stall.)
 

wordsmithy

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It might be in poor taste to complain publicly about rejections...

But I still really enjoyed Dan Gutman's extensive page about all the detailed publisher rejections he received on what would go on to be a top-selling series:

http://www.dangutman.com/pages/rejection.html

Even he had the good sense not to name names though!