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Silence: The New Rejection That’s Expanding in Insidious Ways

Today’s post is by editor and ghostwriter Jacqueline Salmon.

Every writer in the publishing business is, or should be, schooled in the “Silence means no” practice of the publishing industry. That is, if you don’t get a response from an editor or literary agent within a reasonable period, assume it is a rejection and move on.

Gone are the days of polite rejection letters—typed, mailed, and sometimes even offering helpful feedback or suggestions for improvement.

I get that. Who has time now for this outdated practice—even in an email? And I know that agents and editors worry any response might trigger a blizzard of emails from anguished, inexperienced writers clogging their inboxes, asking, “But why?” and “How can I fix it?”

But what concerns me is that the “Silence means no” practice is expanding in insidious ways.

In the past few months, two of my author clients were met with silence after submitting projects to agents—despite both agents having expressed strong interest and inviting the submission. There was not even an acknowledgment to the writer that the submission had been received. Polite follow-up queries by the authors several weeks later asking for confirmation of receipt were also met with silence.

Is there anything wrong with a brief “Sorry, this no longer meets our needs” and then slam down the cone of silence? It takes five seconds to type those seven words and hit send. I timed it.

When a once-promising project gets radio silence, the writer’s stuck. Do they keep waiting—for two months? Six? Maybe there’s still interest, and it’s just taking time. But without clarity, giving up and submitting elsewhere risks offending the agent or publisher who had originally invited the submission.

Responding, even after expressing initial interest, could open that floodgate to follow-up emails, especially since some sort of relationship—however tenuous—had been established. But I know plenty of writer-pros who would suck it up, learn from the rejection, and move on. I wonder if agents and editors sometimes underestimate how professional some writers really are.

Beyond the potential damage to a writer’s publishing path, there’s another risk. You know who always responds to writers fast and enthusiastically? Scammers. To be clear, not everyone who replies promptly is illegitimate. But after enough silence from the legitimate publishing world, disheartened writers become more vulnerable to the siren call of a growing number of predatory players targeting them.

“But they were so helpful,” a recently scammed client told me. This ‘publisher’ responded right away, answered all of his questions, and made him feel like his book really mattered.

Of course they did. They also took him for $30,000.

To be clear, I’m not saying the legitimate publishing industry is responsible when writers fall for scams. And writers need to know that constant rejection is a reality of the publishing business. To be honest, it’s a brutal industry.

But when an agent or editor has expressed interest, five seconds is all it takes to set expectations and avoid confusion. Just five seconds so the writer can move on.

And it’s not only writers who get ghosted like this. A hybrid publisher recently reached out to invite me to coffee. I accepted and asked for dates. Then, nothing. A month later, I followed up with a quick note, assuming my response to her had gotten buried in her email. Still no response. The irony:  I have two clients seriously interested in publishing hybrid who are able to cover the significant costs.

But any chance I’d refer them to her? Gone.

BookCon returns in 2026

BookCon is a reader-facing convention that launched in 2014 as part of BookExpo, then turned into a standalone event that lasted until 2019.

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Book sales update: UK market

Fiction sales revenue grew by 18 percent in 2024 (driven by fantasy and romance), and audiobook revenue grew 31 percent.

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New agent: Neighborhood Literary

GiannaMarie Dobson currently seeks middle-grade and YA fiction as well as adult science fiction and fantasy.

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New imprint: Panamerica

The imprint is under County Highway, whose mission is to publish new writing about America in the form of a 19th-century newspaper.

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Links of Interest: June 25, 2025

The latest in trends, culture & politics, AI, and TikTok.

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How a Misbelief About Love Can Be a Guiding Light for Your Romance Characters

Photo by Brigitte Tohm on Unsplash

Today’s post is by romance author and book coach Trisha Jenn Loehr (@trishajennreads).

We’ve all learned about how our protagonist needs a fatal flaw, as well as internal and external goals. A character’s fatal flaw: the thing they need to overcome during the story to successfully accomplish those goals. This fatal flaw manifests in various ways in the character’s life: in their actions, reactions, thoughts, emotions, and their choices. It also manifests in their relationships.

When it comes to writing a romance novel or love story, this fatal flaw may actually be the misbelief about love that the protagonist needs to unlearn so they can finally grab hold of their happily ever after.

What is a misbelief about love?

A misbelief about love is the character’s incorrect understanding about themselves and love that is blocking their ability to have a successful romantic relationship and get their happily ever after. Often, it not only hinders the character from being able to accept love but makes even the idea of love or romance seem like an impossibility.

The misbelief about love is what causes the main internal conflict blocking the character’s successes in life and relationships—and causes external conflict between love interest characters that forces them to grow, learn, and change.

The correction of the misbelief about love is not only the romance novel’s main plot—the romantic relationship between the love interests—but also the novel’s theme. Once a character unlearns their misbelief about love, they will prove the theme or point of your story and get their happily ever after ending.

What are common misbeliefs about love?

Misbeliefs about love can be somewhat generic sounding, or they can be super specific. It really depends on your character and the story you want to tell. Some common misbeliefs about love that you’ll find in romance novels are:

Love isn’t worth the risk (because it hurts or doesn’t last).I’m not worthy of love. / I don’t deserve love.I’m not good enough for that person I love. / They deserve someone better than me.I’m too broken for love.Love makes everything else too complicated.Love will get in the way of my goals.

As you look at this list of common misbeliefs about love, are you seeing how they might cause conflict in romantic relationships? Or color the way a character sees the world and influence their actions or words? And can you see how the opposite of these misbeliefs might be the point your story is trying to make?

How does a misbelief about love show up on the page?

A character’s misbelief about love colors informs the character’s interpretations of what other characters say or do, their interpretations of circumstances, and the choices they make and reactions they have to people and events.

Sometimes these responses and choices are conscious—the character is aware of why they are saying or doing what they are saying or doing.Often, these responses or choices are more subconscious. They are reflexes because the character hasn’t yet taken the time or put in the effort or energy to dig deeply and understand themselves.What causes misbelief about love?

A misbelief about love, like other core beliefs, is formed by a character’s identity and life experiences. Digging into characters’ backgrounds is where you can add more layers to create depth to those characters and their psyches—and understand where their misbeliefs about love came from.

Consider your character’s:

EducationCultureFamily history and structureFormative events during their childhood—both positive and negativeExperiences with community and religionSocio-economic statusAccess to food and housingFriendships and past romantic relationshipsExperiences of loss, grief, pain, and fear

Identify two or three key aspects or significant events that have had the greatest influence on your character and have resulted in their misbelief.

For example:

A man who grew up watching a dysfunctional marriage: His mom earnestly loved his dad and was abused for it and hurt even more if he tried to stand up for her. So he may have the misbelief that love hurts or is dangerous. If his father said cruel things like “you’re no better than me,” he might be afraid to allow himself to love someone because of the misbelief that he will hurt whomever he loves.If a woman grows up feeling she needs to earn love: She may learn the misbelief that she doesn’t deserve love, that being loved requires effort. This may lead to her morphing herself into whatever she thinks her current partner wants rather than being herself.If a woman sees her mother marry, divorce, mourn, and marry again repeatedly: She might learn the misbelief that love doesn’t last and decide to never put herself in a position to be hurt.Layering misbeliefs (and course corrections) about love on the page

When you understand your love interest characters’ misbeliefs about love, you can layer it into the story, showing how the misbelief is getting in the way of achieving their goals. Then, you can layer in opportunities for your characters to learn and grow. By seeing what successful relationships look like and having other characters question them or challenge them on their choices, characters can learn to correct their misbeliefs.

Consider three kinds of moments to layer into your story:

Moments that seem to confirm your character’s misbelief about love.Moments that cause your character to question their misbelief about love.A moment that forces the character to choose what to believe, and ultimately forces them to correct their misbelief about love.

Understanding your character’s misbelief about love and their arc of change is tough work. It’s layered. It takes time and lots of thinking and lots of revising.

Once you have a clearer idea of who your character is, what they believe, why they believe it, and how it’s causing conflict in their story (both romantic and otherwise), you’ll feel more equipped to write a romance story with a compelling character arc.

Christian publisher launches secular fiction imprint focused on romance

Just as secular publishers are launching Christian-living imprints, Christian publishers are launching their own crossover efforts.

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New science fiction publisher: Factorial Books

The founders of an aerospace company have launched Factorial Books, a new digital publishing company based in London.

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There’s now a wearable e-reader: Sol

It looks like a chunky pair of sunglasses. The tagline: “Get lost in a good book again.” It connects to your existing Kindle library.

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