Eight Takeaways From a Publisher’s Rejection
The tastes of the gatekeepers matter more than the tastes of your audience.
So I’ve been rejected, which isn’t remotely news.
I wasn’t rejected by an agent or a standard publisher, but by one of those “writer’s friends” websites that sells expensive editorial and promotional services. I submitted on the grounds that I might actually be published (a questionable proposition given the company, but this is what you do when the entire industry shuts you out), and I now have to assume that the whole thing was just to get my email address and upsell me on their premium services. This isn’t news, either.
What is news is that they actually gave me a personalized rejection.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I haven’t received a personalized response in years, at least not to a long-form work. That made this something of an event. Oh, it wasn’t a good response, but it was interesting all the same. So let’s discuss and dissect.
This isn’t strictly a piss-and-moan session, though there will be some of that. No, this is meant to be somewhat informative. Because while the company in question might not be the most reputable, their response was consistent with what I’ve heard from the industry over the past decade.
