A Room of Her Own Just Got Bigger
Rejection
I have a rejection slip story to end all rejection slip stories. Early in my efforts to get published I sent my short story "The Aviarian" to a magazine called Samisdat, now defunct I believe. The editor wrote me a letter of rejection instead of a rejection slip and said, among many other things, "Who the fuck told you this is a story?" I was devastated and didn't write again for a year. BUT - read on.
The same story was later chosen by Kurt Vonnegut for the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project; it was then chosen as one of the Ten Best PEN/Available Press Short Stories of 1984; then it was chosen as one of three for a special reading at the Library of Congress in 1985.
I have a work in progress about that incident that will go in a longer piece. I wanted to tell it here for any writer who is disheartened after going through a long period of repeated rejections.
The same story was later chosen by Kurt Vonnegut for the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project; it was then chosen as one of the Ten Best PEN/Available Press Short Stories of 1984; then it was chosen as one of three for a special reading at the Library of Congress in 1985.
I have a work in progress about that incident that will go in a longer piece. I wanted to tell it here for any writer who is disheartened after going through a long period of repeated rejections.
Tags: rejection
Comment
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Comment by Renee Cooper on March 9, 2010 at 11:25am -
Thank you, It felt like I was alone. And yes, I did know a long process. I just didn't expect to have to do it with this level of exposure.
Cheers,
Renee
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Comment by Rebecca Rasmussen on March 1, 2010 at 8:30am - Wow! Now that is a rejection for the books, mostly because that person was wrong!
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Comment by Dangerous Old Woman on February 14, 2010 at 6:07pm - Renate: I had forgotten about Jonathan Livingston Seagull. My novel (Sing Soft, Sing Loud) was rejected by 15 publishers before Atheneum took it, and at the time I thought that was bad! Ackshully (and this is more about the insanity of publishing) the first house that saw the book made a great offer and wanted me to promise I would agree to a book tour and I turned it down because the book is based on my experiences in prison and the editor who made the offer said about a particular segment "That's not how it is in prison". I kid you not. I was there and she wasn't. So I was sure the relationship would be a disaster and turned it down. My agent cried.
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Comment by Renate Stendhal on February 14, 2010 at 4:42pm -
Great story with a happy ending! Reminder: "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" got 150-some rejections. Even Harry Potter got lots of them. Your brilliant editor probably thought your story was chick lit!
Cheers. Renate
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Comment by Wilson Sherwin on February 9, 2010 at 9:30am - Wow, what cojones on that editor! Please do send us the info for the longer version when it comes out, looking forward to reading it.
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Comment by E Victoria Flynn on February 8, 2010 at 2:23pm - Beautiful.
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