I understand your frustration as a writer. A rejection letter is a tough thing to deal with, however, unless one of three things happen, I would say it is OK. What are those three things?
- The editor or agent tells you to stay away and never submit again.
- You learn something about the editor or agent that tells you it isn't the right match.
- You change your direction in writing and your story no longer would go to that person.
When someone submits a project to me, I log in what I thought about it in my database. When a writer turns around and submits a new project, their name pops up in the database so I go back and look. Part of this is to make sure it isn't the same story, but the bigger reason is to see what the problem was on the last project. I want to see if they made changes to their writing and style to over-come those barriers.
I will say, most of the time, there has never been a change. The writer continues to write the same way over and over again. There is not growth and, of course, they are still not a part of the Greyhaus Literary Agency. Only one time in the past did a writer, with a second project fix this problem and I signed the writer. I should also add that we are now going back and working on that first project that received the rejection.
The goal is to demonstrate to those editors and agents you take criticism and you can revise.
Before you go crazy with one thing, let me put a clarifier on all of this. I understand there are many of you who only receive a form letter. In those cases, the best you can do is to go back, read more of what the agent or editor represents, and dissect their styles. You will likely find what you have been doing wrong.
Have a great week!
Scott
