Why the Mean Ol’ Publisher Rejected You and How to Make Him Say Yes Next Time

Let me tell you from the get-go, my headline is tongue-in-cheek.

Know why? Because publishing is no place for whiners.

Compete on my playground and you’ll find we don’t argue with the refs. Only losers blame it on them.

When pros drop the ball, we look in the mirror, figure out what we did wrong, and do better next time.

In the writing business we say, “Never argue with the man who buys ink by the barrel.”

There’s too much competition to waste time pointing the finger at “the man,” “the system,” or “those people” who “don’t know talent” or who “wouldn’t know good writing if it smacked them in the face.”

So Are You Ready…

…to leave your excuses in your gym bag, pull on your big kid pants, and compete with the A-team?

You’re getting more rejections than sales. You’re inclined to be defensive. Don’t get me wrong—so am I.

But that won’t get us anywhere, will it?

Rather, let’s look in the mirror, consider the following, and commit to overhauling our approach.

What You May Need to Fix
You didn’t follow submission guidelines to a T

Magazine, online, and book publishers give you every opportunity to get this right. They make available to writers their style requirements and other preferences.

Prove you can follow directions and respect their wishes. Your competition will.

You didn’t go through the proper channels to get to them in the first place

It may not seem fair that you have to go through an agent or be referred by one of their existing writers, but rules are rules. If they aren’t accepting unsolicited manuscripts, don’t be surprised—or gripe—when yours comes back unread.

Your submission had typos, misspellings, bad grammar

Couldn’t they look past such seemingly minor issues for the sake of your brilliant prose? Don’t they have editors and proofreaders for those sorts of things?

Sure they could have, and yes they do. But your writing is going to have to be Rowlingesque to rise above competition that doesn’t scare them off with such amateurism. They might overlook a handful of such errors over several hundred pages, but not in a cover letter, a query, a proposal.

Do what it takes to put your best foot forward.

Your writing was simply not up to par

This is a much more serious issue, requiring going back and shoring up the basics by becoming a ferocious self-editor.

Seven quick tips to improve your writing:

1.  Avoid throat-clearing.

That’s what editors call anything at the beginning of your piece of writing that keeps you from grabbing the reader by the throat—description, scene setting, introducing too many characters, setting the stage with backstory…

2.  Choose the normal word over the obtuse.

Like obtuse. A savvy editor would change that to fancy.

3.  Omit needless words.

That’s the rule that follows its own advice.

4.  Give the reader credit. Assume people have brains.

He walked through the open door. She squinted as she looked up in the sky overhead at the sun above her.

5.  Avoid clichés, and not just words and phrases, but situations.

Beginning with your lead waking to a jangling alarm clock
Describing himself in front of a full-length mirror
Eventual lovers literally running into each other on first meeting, he knocking groceries or books out of her hands, helping her pick them up
The villain having the drop on the hero, holding a gun on him. A shot rings out, but it’s the villain who falls, shot by an unlikely third party.
Just when all seems safe, the incapacitated villain springs back to life for one more attack.

6.  Resist the urge to explain (RUE).

…she let out a panicked shriek. …she let go of the candle she had been carrying.

7.  Show, don’t tell.

Telling: Jim found it cold outside.

Showing: Jim hunched his shoulders and turned his face from the frigid wind.

(For more, check out my list of 21 self-editing tips.)

What will you do this week to start getting your markets to say Yes more often than No? Tell me in Comments below.

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