Let's start off by saying that, yes, rejections totally suck! They suck getting them. They suck writing them, and yes, as an agent, they really suck when we have to live it twice and tell our clients. But, just because you get a rejection letter is not a reason to sit back at that computer and crank out a snitty letter to make yourself feel better.
As agents, we get these all of the time. I hate to break it to you. It doesn't hurt our feelings. That's what the delete button is for in the emails. Yes, we do read these letters. And guess what? Yes, we do forward the really funny letters around to our colleagues saying, "check out this person!"
I do find it interesting that the majority of the writers who fire off these letters of flame and fire are also the people who were rejected because they didn't read the directions, or they haven't done their research. This is what makes those letters even funnier as they try to shift their failure over to us.
Most recently, I received a pretty good rant from someone who decided to use social media to submit the manuscript. This particular social media outlet I was using specifically states on my profile to A) not submit projects here; and B) that I only represent romance and women's fiction. But noooooo, this author felt the need to post the first three chapters directly on the site of the manuscript (which honestly I am not sure what genre it really was).
Now I understand this author has probably been told to "be aggressive" and "keep pushing". But this author screwed up. So I simply replied that this site is not the appropriate place for submissions.
Wow! That letter was good!
The point is this. Sure you might get angry. But that letter is not going to get you anything. You might have a great project in the future perfect for that editor or agent... but you burnt that bridge.
...and you don't want to do that!
No comments:
Post a Comment