Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rejection Redux


Tonight is my last class for this semester's Writing for Children's Books at RISD, and it’s rejection night. That’s right: this is the evening that I bring in my teetering pile of rejection letters and my students look aghast for a little while. A depressing way to end? I don’t think so at all.

They’re going to get rejection letters. Everyone does. The more rejection letters they get, the closer they’ll be to an acceptance. Each one is a necessary step. Each a rite of passage. Each an opportunity to revise and try again. And rejection letters do tend, after a while, to evolve, as I explain in class.

There’s always a student who says, “You actually keep them?!”

Of course I do. I was sifting through the pile this morning and found six “positive” rejections for a picture book I’d shelved some time ago. Now I’m thinking it might be time to get that text out and revise it. Take a good hard look after letting it ferment and see what I can do to make it viable. Apparently there’s something there to work with, which I wouldn’t have considered without the letters.

As I was researching author rejection statistics, I also came across this great little interview with the wonderful Kate diCamillo who apparently was rejected 397 times (sources vary on the number, and I saw as many as 500 times) before she found a  home for the 2001 Newbery Honor book Because of Winn Dixie.


So today I thought I’d repost my thoughts on rejection from last year:

Rejection is What You Make It

My first form rejection made me cry. I think. I really don’t remember it that well, though at the time I probably felt I'd never forget the sting. In the twelve years since then, I’ve had many rejections. Somewhere along the way, ‘positive rejections’ began to outnumber form rejections, and after a time I gathered a few non-rejections—um, I mean ‘acceptances.’ Form letter induced tears have given way to forced laughter, then grim-but-determined smiles, wry sighs, and now indifferent shrugs.

All of this is par for the course. And it’s a challenging course. It’s not for the faint of heart. It will:

  • bamboozle the uninitiated
  • overwhelm the lazy
  • shrivel up the gutless
  • stymie the passive aggressive faster than they can wail, “It’s not my fault, it’s theirs!”
  • quickly teach you whether or not you’re a quitter.


 Achieving publication requires:
  • guts
  • stamina
  • passion
  • hard work
  • vision
  • professionalism
  •  a hearty dose of mindless, blind faith that success is just around the corner… or the next… or the next...
  • the belief that the journey, the lovely people met along the way, and the countless hours spent learning, creating, crafting, revising, and editing are worth the struggle
  • niceness.



Glorious and bountiful form rejections:
  • force you to be a better writer
  • show your developmental arc as a writer
  • teach you to accept rejection (any kind of rejection in *Life!*) with dignity, learn from it, shrug off any residual pain, and bloody just get on with it
  • tell you you’re probably gutsy, strong, passionate, hard-working, accepting, professional, and if you’re not already, at least on the way to being nice. And cool. And dignified. And visionary! And possibly slightly delusional, but that’s ok... You’re a writer.







12 comments:

  1. Great Post, Marlo- and also love the video- great way to start my writing time- reading your blog. thank you!

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  2. Love the upended birdie...and your thoughts on rejection...and Kate's video. Thanks for the great post, Marlo.

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  3. Wonderful inspiration for both the published and pre-published writers. We all continue to get rejections and need to read well written articles like yours that will keep us going. Thanks for sharing, especially about Kate DiCamillo. I hadn't heard that before.

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  4. That was a wonderful post. My future readers thank you for the kick in the pants.

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  5. Persistence is more important than truth.
    - Charles Bukowski

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  6. Hah! And I just got another rejection in my inbox. Hurrah! Huzzah! Onwards and upwards... and a little bit sidewards.

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  7. Wonderful timing!

    Kate's interview is excellent, and I love the last bullet point in your post.

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  8. Wonderful post, and I'm so glad I came across it via a recommendation from Jennifer Cervantes. I just got another rejection, and was feeling the old tired "sigh" inside, and now I feel cheered to get on with it yet again.

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  9. Encouraging. We can't control much in the publishing world, but we can persist.

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  10. Thanks for this post, Marlo! Stamina and guts are what we all need and sometimes we need to be reminded. Loved the video of Kate!

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  11. Thanks, Marlo. I finally found your blog due to this post! Mentor Eric Kimmel told me "Persistence and volume should be your mantra."

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  12. So truet: "and after a time I gathered a few non-rejections—um, I mean ‘acceptances.’"

    It seems most writers tend to look at the negative way of things... "non rejection" vs. acceptance.

    Thanks for this post. Important to hear.

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