Rejection is Part of Publishing

I think people who aren’t writers have a skewed vision of what a writer’s life is like. Most of us don’t make a lot of money, our publishers don’t pay for us to go on book tours or to conferences, and no matter how many books we’ve published, the next one isn’t an automatic yes.

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’ve written a Hallmark-movie type romance. I turned it into my agent in November 2022. He sent it to eleven editors in April of 2023. Then the waiting began followed by the rejections. While it’s never easy to get a no, a rejection can also educate you.

Thank you so much for sharing this one with me! This is such an adorable concept, and is chock full of romance tropes that I love as a reader. Ultimately, it isn’t the right fit for my list. But I really did enjoy the writing, and do appreciate you thinking of me for this one. Best of luck finding the right home for this manuscript.

Thank you so much for thinking of me. Regretfully, I don’t see how to launch this successfully in today’s overcrowded romance market.

Getting back to you on your submission which I’ve now had a chance to read and discuss here. While the concept is such a cute idea, we’re being incredibly selective about our rom-com acquisitions these days and I’m afraid the writing just didn’t grab me in this one.

I felt there was nice nostalgia injected into this project, with the protagonist having to face her past no matter how hard she tried to avoid it. The small town of Sea Cove is very cute as well, but I’m afraid small town romance is quite crowded at the moment.

I thought the concept was cute and fun, but the story felt too familiar to me to really stand out for us in a big way. I just didn’t feel that it had a strong or fresh enough hook to work for us, even with the dog aspect.

Sherry is a talented writer, and I think her interest in a pivot to romance is very exciting. But unfortunately, I just didn’t fall in love with the overall plotting of this book in the way I’d need to in order to champion this here. So, this is a pass for me.

While Sherry is a strong writer, I’m afraid I didn’t connect with this enough to pursue for our list.

Compared to rejections for my first hasn’t-been-published-and-probably-never-will-be book, these rejections aren’t bad. I find the varied responses fascinating and I have done some reading between the lines – the book needs more work. Four publishers haven’t responded. It could be the slow no, as we call it in the business, or it could be it’s still in a stack of manuscripts to read. I want to do another edit on the manuscript before my agent reaches out to those who haven’t responded or before reaching out to other publishers. I haven’t given up on this project even with the rejections.

Readers: Have you had rejections? Have they ever motivated you?