A Rejection Doesn't Give You Permission To Be Nasty

I was working with my UCLA Extension Developmental Editing class this weekend and we were talking about what happens when authors get rejected. Too often, many authors go out of their way to start putting up negative reviews about the editor or agent. "This person doesn't know what they are doing!" "Those agents are not willing to take a chance on a new author." Those professionals only want people who will bring them millions of dollars for one book." "That editor or agent is just not signing me because of my story being about [insert race relations, LGBTQ+ issues, or other social issue]".

I think there are a few things to consider when it comes to getting a rejection letter. I am going to specifically speak to what we see as an agent.

First of all, let's start with the fact that we don't make any money unless we can sell your book and/or that book starts making money. This means, all of the work we are doing is free of charge. For this reason, we look at that book you sent to us and, not only do we look at the marketability of that book, we also look to see how much of a time commitment it is going to be and is that time worth it. This is nothing personal. This is business. 

Next, when we reject a story, I am sorry to say this, but it may indeed be your fault and not ours. If the story is not good, if you sent it to someone who doesn't acquire that genre, if the story is not what will sell in the market, if the writing is just like everything else out there, that has nothing to do with the editor or agent. That is all on your shoulders.

Rejections are a part of this business. That is the simple fact. But, when you get that rejection letter, this is not the time for you to jump on to social media, get on those websites that have you "provide your experience with the editor or agent" and throw them under the bus. I always find it interesting that these sites, the majority of the time, only have the negative comments up. Why is that? Well, it comes down to a couple of reasons. The first is if the author had a good experience, the odds are they are not going back to those sites and taking the time to post good comments. They got what they wanted and they are moving forward with their career. The second is that many of these authors are not looking to themselves as a potential issue. To them, they were perfect and it was someone else's fault. 

Now, don't get me wrong. There are indeed some "bad seeds" out there and we need to know about them. These would be agents who charge reading fees. Publishers who don't pay their authors for any number of reasons. It is always important to keep our fellow members of the writing community aware of those bad seeds. However, a rejection letter is not a reason to be petty and nasty.

As always, remember there are a lot of variables editors and agents are considering when it comes to your story, and YES, some of those variables are things you should be in control of and are entirely on your shoulders.