I've submitted my kid's book manuscript to four editors and am now in rejection mode. I'm trying to take the letters in stride. Wasn't Steven King rejected a hundred times before his wife submitted a crumpled draft of Carrie that she pulled from his garbage can? Even though I know they are form letters, I still find myself clinging to some choice of words or turn of phrase to extract more meaning: "after thoughtful consideration;" "after consider this carefully;" "this is due entirely to the books on our list;" and so on. That makes me feel hopeful for about a second. Because when someone tells me, "It's not you, it's me," I hear the exact reverse.
So, what to do with these letters as I am in the midst of a long-awaited, satisfying, cleansing, blitz of purging every unused, unneed item from my home. Here's:
Top Ten Things to do With Rejection Letters
10. In the spirit of acupuncture where they put a needle into pain to draw all the pain to it before removing the needle, use it for origami.
9. Build a wordle and recycle the paper.
8. Write (but, of course, not send) a thank you note to the editors telling them how happy I was to receive their form letters that squashed my dreams.
7. Paper mache a devil puppet.
6. Post on Facebook.
5. Write each editor a rejection denial letter.
4. Get citrus peel in hopes of growing back thicker skin.
3. Wallpaper my room. I'm laughing as I write this because someone actually did this and I'm trying to imagine how I would feel looking at these things every day.
2. Mulch it into paper for my kid's to draw on. Possibly some sort of feeling of circular satisfaction??
1. Send to this guy for a good blend.
Any other suggestions are welcome as I haven't quite decided.
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Rejection is both humbling and motivating. But wouldn't it be fun to use a few of the editors as characters in your next puppet show?
ReplyDeleteYour manuscript is very good and will find a life of its own in some form.
Thanks, Ken. But, just in case, there's always the blender...
ReplyDeleteWhen I received my first rejection letter I jumped up and down with excitement. I felt like I had reached the next step of getting published. Didn't someone once say, "It's better to have been rejected than to never have submitted."? So on that note, I'm mailing off 3 more submissions today. Someone's gotta get published, it might as well be me, too.
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