Rejection Etiquette

Before I embarked on self-publishing I began the lengthily task of appealing on bleeding knee to every publishing house worldwide that would be gracious enough to read my manuscript. This came after two years of writing and perfecting, spilling blood, sweat and tears into my laptop - buying a new laptop after spilling blood, sweat and tears onto the first one and then I was ready. That was last year, February to be exact.

[image error] To start with you have to follow each publishing houses' not necessarily generic guidelines to formatting and etiquette. So I studied each company's bible rules and regulations, redesigned my manuscript accordingly, sourced the companies that dealt in my genre, or may have an interest in my work and off the letters went. Synopsis, samples, emails and bribes all waiting for the plucky publishing house to snap me up.

I know, like any realist in this business, the chances of an acceptance letter would be as likely as the Greek economy making a spontaneous comeback next week. Still I waited, because good things are then obliged to come.

In the months that followed I received an immediate rejection because my religious formatting was not up to scratch, probably because I had mixed up my literary deities. Then there was nothing, just tumble weed and the wind banging the shutters against the window pane. So I did it myself and here I am 85 books sold in less than 6 months, good reviews and another book in the pipeline. I even afforded a little smile.

Then I opened my inbox today and found a rejection email from a publishing house. Smile fading, cue incredible Hulk face. I'm not angry because I was rejected, in fact the publishing house was a long shot (they published Welsh authors rather than fantasy) and I would have been surprised to receive anything more. No what annoyed me was the fact that I wrote to them, harnessing the power of the Royal Mail service and all I got in return was a poxy email at 5.00 pm (just before closing) telling me: "we're sorry, we're not interested in your work. If you would like your manuscript returned please send a SAE to..."

Now I know this is going to sound like sour grapes but I really feel that a two sentence email after nine months is not good enough from a reputable publishing house, not when they specify we write to them by post. There is no notable feedback to explain their decision, I mean I am not expecting a chapter and verse of why they're not interested but a simple: It's not the type of thing we publish, or: Your work is crap, delete it and give your hard drive room to breathe, would at least provide some clarity.

It annoys me that as writers we do the best that we can. We put everything into our work and it's not an easy decision to put ourselves out there. Taking the plunge and deciding to publish is probably the scariest thing we will ever do and it's about time publishing houses remove the sticks from their backsides and at least acknowledge the effort we have put in, by providing us with a proper letter of rejection where the respondent has spent at least a few minutes crafting a reply, rather than copying and pasting their generic email. One of us will make them a fortune, isn't it about time they start appreciating us as the heart of their business.

Yes this is a rant about etiquette. I appreciate my book is not going to be easy to sell (I should know I'm trying to sell it), I also appreciate in this current climate it's not worth publishing companies taking unnecessary risks on unsolicited manuscripts unless they have confidence in them, but at least, as professionals in the literary business, can we still uphold the traditions of our trade, show a little respect for the effort we as writers, successful or not, have put in and respond with a bit more consideration when you bother to respond at all.

Okay now I'm feeling calmer. I still have a dozen or so responses I am waiting for and like Godot I suspect I'll be waiting a while, maybe forever. Perhaps I will sell my first million before I get a response. And perhaps I will sell another million before I reply, by letter of course, I wouldn't want to be a total hypocrite. Above is another picture from Huwzo, another writer waiting for a response.