You hear the
stories all the time: How famous author so-and-so’s first novel, which went on
to become a best seller and a classic, received forty-eleven-hundred rejection
letters from publishers before finally getting published.
Don’t plan
on it happening to you.
Your book
may go on to be a classic, but it’s unlikely you’ll get many rejection letters
along the way.
That’s
because what once was true is seldom the case anymore. In days gone by,
publishers routinely sent rejection letters to aspiring authors. Some were
boilerplate one-size-fits-all form letters, others offered actual criticism of
the book, reasons why it was not a good fit for that publisher, even
encouragement and advice.
But, except
on rare occasions, those days are gone.
Queries and
submissions today are met, more often than not, with silence.
Most large
publishing houses are staffed by a fraction of the number of people they were
in the past, and those still on the job don’t have—or won’t take—the time to
respond to—reject—your work. Smaller publishers are often shoestring operations
and the owner-publisher-editor-designer-distributor-chief cook and bottle
washer has too many pies and not enough fingers to reject every (or any)
submission that comes along.
This is true
for unsolicited queries and submissions, but also, in many cases, applies when
you’ve been invited during an interview at a conference or workshop to submit.
You’ll get much the same treatment from literary agents. Unanswered queries are
also the norm nowadays at periodicals.
Still, if
you don’t submit or query, you’ll never get anywhere so you’ve got to do it.
Just don’t bother steeling yourself for the heartbreak of being rejected. More
likely, you’ll simply be ignored. Which I find even more disheartening.
