Ah, the memories...

When I was cleaning my office this past week, I found a rejection from agent Meg Ruley at the Jane Rotrosen Agency dated 2/19/02. Form rejection. Dated about four months before I signed on with the brilliant and wonderful agent I have now.

People say you know you're getting close when you start getting personalized rejections instead of form ones. Well, that's a lie. Of the 130 plus rejections in my file drawer, they are almost all form rejections, even right up to the time I signed with my current agent. Form rejections simply signify that your stuff wasn't right for the agency. File it, then move on.

Okay, in honor of being rejected, I decided to go thru my file. Whoee. There's a lot of rejections in there. Here's a quote from my favorite, which *was* personalized. I'd gotten a previous form rejection from this agent, and I'd submitted my new project to her. As you can see from below, personalized isn't always better:

"Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for submitting a query for SECRETS IN ASH. I do remember your other projects, MYSTIC WATERS and GREEN JEOPARDY. They were rejected because I felt that although you show promise, you have not matured enough as a writer and have yet to master some important aspects of the craft. If you are serious about your career as a writer, you should continue to attend writer's conferences and workshops, become a member of a critique group, and perhaps work with a freelance fiction editor."

Translation: your work sucks and I don't want you to darken my doorstep again, so I'm giving you a personalized rejection so you really understand how bad you are and stop harrassing me.

See? Rejection letters are easy to translate if you'd just open your mind.

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 1:23 PM