Thanks for sharing this. It feels like a hard market at the moment, and being on sub is so stressful. Reading about your experience is quite comforting. A great reminder that I only need one yes!
Thank you so much for sharing this. It motivates me to keep going despite the rejections (I research COVID fiction and run a book podcast which interviews authors). I think there’s a conversation to be had around how media don’t want to talk about COVID, and potentially how publishers don’t really want COVID fiction anymore. I’ve had so much rejection over the past three years, and in the years before I was awarded the scholarship. Rejection is a topic which needs to be talked about more - I found the pod to be a useful type of rejection therapy. Definitely more resilient now! Thanks again for sharing!! Xxx
I'm not sure I even still have all my early rejections, I may have deleted them in a fit of pique 😂 We all have them, though, for sure. As you say, the one way to guarantee you won't be published is to stop trying…
I've been on sub with 5 different domestic suspense novels and received pages and pages of similar rejections. No happy ending for me yet.... but your sharing inspires me to keep going.
Thank you for sharing these! So helpful to see. Im in the querying trenches after securing an agent nearly 5 years ago, that book not selling and my next being too close to something else my agent was selling, so we split…. And it’s so hard to still have hope! Really helps to read others stories.
This is so similar to what happened to me with my first book (which never actually got a deal but the next one I wrote did) - right down to the feedback about ‘beautifully written but the suspense isn’t strong enough/the concept might not stand out enough in the crowd’ etc. Really familiar! Thanks for sharing
This is so brilliant, thank you Phoebe. This is the best advice ever: 'You just never know and the only way to guarantee you will never be published is if you stop writing.' thanks for sharing!
This so chimed with me, Phoebe. I have a long list of those same rejections from editors, but I do feel it’s the struggle to climb out of these trenches that makes the deal so sweet in the end and makes you a better writer. If it’s too easy, there’s less of an incentive to improve and hone. Well done for having the grit to stick it out!
I really appreciate this very candid look at the reality of rejection notes, and the surprisingly nuanced feedback they can offer...even if my mental picture of rejection notes will forever be the PEANUTS comic where Snoopy gets a letter from an editor about his manuscript that ends, "Why did you send it to us? What did we ever do to hurt you?"
I suspect "Why did you send it to us? What did we ever do to hurt you?" is, amongst other books fitting this criteria, also what the rejection letters for Mark Z. Danielewski's HOUSE OF LEAVES said.
Thank you so much for this inside look at getting published. I will keep all this in mind, if I ever finish writing "the first" book. I've gotten used to rejections for short stories and poetry. It doesn't bother me anymore. I just think, oh well, their loss. Just not the right fit for them.
I have a few wins, and those are what I focus on, knowing I just have to get better at selecting to whom I submit. I hope I can keep the same attitude going when I find an agent and get started with submitting, just to agents :-)
Yesterday I received my copy of the Paddler Press issue called "Faith". It is online, but I'd no idea they actually make a "little book" out of each issue! It has some gorgeous photos submitted for publication, a really really beautiful issue filled mostly with poetry along with a few prose submissions, of which mine was one.
I started it with one of my grandmother's poems, so for the first time ever her work is in a book :-) Big win for both of us.
Oh wow, you've been so generous sharing your journey in such detail! (I'm going to buy your debut book now too!). Amazing you received such useful/encouraging feedback too.
Thank you for sharing. I'm still looking for an agent, ideally one who would fight my corner, like yours. Having said that, I've left my first two novels in Query Land and am halfway through my third. As is the way, it's the best thing I've written, so hopefully this time next year I might be complaining about publishing submissions! 🤣
Rejections I got for my first historical thriller in June 2019:
"Thanks also for bearing with me on this – I was away on holiday last week, hence the slightly delayed reply. I really enjoyed what I read of this and loved the atmosphere, but ultimately felt that it wasn’t quite for me so ended up passing it on to my colleague XXX, especially as I was going to be away, and they have a penchant for historical too (and is always on the lookout for any fiction championing LGBTQ voices and rights). They read whilst I was off and enjoyed, but didn’t feel that they’d be quite the right editor for it, either. So we’re going to pass, but thank you so much for sending it our way, and we’ll defo be supporting it from the side lines wherever it ends up."
"Thanks for sending me this, I love Florence and the thought of a series set there is hugely exciting. As a mystery-thriller, I was constantly comparing it to the XXX series I used to work on at [Big 5]. I appreciate the author is trying to do something different here but I didn’t think it was quite as tense or pacy or psychologically atmospheric as those – I think particularly the lead character of Cesare Aldo needs to be reworked so the reader feels much closer to him, understanding him and seeing the world through his eyes. I’m sure others will feel totally different but that was my reader’s reaction. He’s obviously a very talented new writer who deserves to do well, and I wish you the best of luck finding the right home for him."
Two weeks later three different publishers were making offers, proof that you just need to find the right editor(s).
Ohhh thank you for this, and how lovely is Camilla? What a brilliantly strong lady to have in your corner! And well done both of you, to keep it rolling book after book, it’s such an inspiring achievement.
I’m currently on second round with my bookclub novel, and getting lots of Nice No’s, But No Cigar…it’s grimly painful but oddly validating…these incredible editors really are reading the story, and the reasons they decide not to buy are business ones, rather than my secret nightmare of ‘overwritten and rather dull’.
Ive never quite had this level of exposure, my current agents are Numbers Five and Six, and are absolute fighters. Whilst this book is out, they’ve got me writing a thriller (loving it) and they never falter in their enthusiasm and support. I can’t describe the difference having the right agents make to everything, from the workshopping of ideas, to handling being on sub and not going screaming mad.
Anyway, yours and Camilla’s advice to just keep writing lifts my heart, thank you to you both. And huzzah, to your next book, and the one after that!
Thanks for sharing this. It feels like a hard market at the moment, and being on sub is so stressful. Reading about your experience is quite comforting. A great reminder that I only need one yes!
You do! X
Thank you so much for sharing this. It motivates me to keep going despite the rejections (I research COVID fiction and run a book podcast which interviews authors). I think there’s a conversation to be had around how media don’t want to talk about COVID, and potentially how publishers don’t really want COVID fiction anymore. I’ve had so much rejection over the past three years, and in the years before I was awarded the scholarship. Rejection is a topic which needs to be talked about more - I found the pod to be a useful type of rejection therapy. Definitely more resilient now! Thanks again for sharing!! Xxx
This was the most helpful post I've read on Substack so far. Thanks so much for sharing, Phoebe!
Aw thank you!
I'm not sure I even still have all my early rejections, I may have deleted them in a fit of pique 😂 We all have them, though, for sure. As you say, the one way to guarantee you won't be published is to stop trying…
Exactly!!!
So good to share this. Thank you Phoebe. 💚📚
Thank you for reading, Jane!
I've been on sub with 5 different domestic suspense novels and received pages and pages of similar rejections. No happy ending for me yet.... but your sharing inspires me to keep going.
Thank you for saying so! Sending luck!
Thank you for sharing these! So helpful to see. Im in the querying trenches after securing an agent nearly 5 years ago, that book not selling and my next being too close to something else my agent was selling, so we split…. And it’s so hard to still have hope! Really helps to read others stories.
I’m so glad it helps x
This is so similar to what happened to me with my first book (which never actually got a deal but the next one I wrote did) - right down to the feedback about ‘beautifully written but the suspense isn’t strong enough/the concept might not stand out enough in the crowd’ etc. Really familiar! Thanks for sharing
Thank you for reading and engaging!
This is so brilliant, thank you Phoebe. This is the best advice ever: 'You just never know and the only way to guarantee you will never be published is if you stop writing.' thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading!
This so chimed with me, Phoebe. I have a long list of those same rejections from editors, but I do feel it’s the struggle to climb out of these trenches that makes the deal so sweet in the end and makes you a better writer. If it’s too easy, there’s less of an incentive to improve and hone. Well done for having the grit to stick it out!
Thank you! Good luck to you
I really appreciate this very candid look at the reality of rejection notes, and the surprisingly nuanced feedback they can offer...even if my mental picture of rejection notes will forever be the PEANUTS comic where Snoopy gets a letter from an editor about his manuscript that ends, "Why did you send it to us? What did we ever do to hurt you?"
🤣🤣🤣
I suspect "Why did you send it to us? What did we ever do to hurt you?" is, amongst other books fitting this criteria, also what the rejection letters for Mark Z. Danielewski's HOUSE OF LEAVES said.
Thank you so much for this inside look at getting published. I will keep all this in mind, if I ever finish writing "the first" book. I've gotten used to rejections for short stories and poetry. It doesn't bother me anymore. I just think, oh well, their loss. Just not the right fit for them.
I have a few wins, and those are what I focus on, knowing I just have to get better at selecting to whom I submit. I hope I can keep the same attitude going when I find an agent and get started with submitting, just to agents :-)
Focus on the wins!!! Thanks for reading x
Yesterday I received my copy of the Paddler Press issue called "Faith". It is online, but I'd no idea they actually make a "little book" out of each issue! It has some gorgeous photos submitted for publication, a really really beautiful issue filled mostly with poetry along with a few prose submissions, of which mine was one.
I started it with one of my grandmother's poems, so for the first time ever her work is in a book :-) Big win for both of us.
Aw how lovely
Oh wow, you've been so generous sharing your journey in such detail! (I'm going to buy your debut book now too!). Amazing you received such useful/encouraging feedback too.
Aw thank you - hope you enjoy the book x
Thank you for sharing. I'm still looking for an agent, ideally one who would fight my corner, like yours. Having said that, I've left my first two novels in Query Land and am halfway through my third. As is the way, it's the best thing I've written, so hopefully this time next year I might be complaining about publishing submissions! 🤣
Fingers crossed for you x
Rejections I got for my first historical thriller in June 2019:
"Thanks also for bearing with me on this – I was away on holiday last week, hence the slightly delayed reply. I really enjoyed what I read of this and loved the atmosphere, but ultimately felt that it wasn’t quite for me so ended up passing it on to my colleague XXX, especially as I was going to be away, and they have a penchant for historical too (and is always on the lookout for any fiction championing LGBTQ voices and rights). They read whilst I was off and enjoyed, but didn’t feel that they’d be quite the right editor for it, either. So we’re going to pass, but thank you so much for sending it our way, and we’ll defo be supporting it from the side lines wherever it ends up."
"Thanks for sending me this, I love Florence and the thought of a series set there is hugely exciting. As a mystery-thriller, I was constantly comparing it to the XXX series I used to work on at [Big 5]. I appreciate the author is trying to do something different here but I didn’t think it was quite as tense or pacy or psychologically atmospheric as those – I think particularly the lead character of Cesare Aldo needs to be reworked so the reader feels much closer to him, understanding him and seeing the world through his eyes. I’m sure others will feel totally different but that was my reader’s reaction. He’s obviously a very talented new writer who deserves to do well, and I wish you the best of luck finding the right home for him."
Two weeks later three different publishers were making offers, proof that you just need to find the right editor(s).
So true! Thank you v much for sharing these - I’m sure they’ll help people too x
Ohhh thank you for this, and how lovely is Camilla? What a brilliantly strong lady to have in your corner! And well done both of you, to keep it rolling book after book, it’s such an inspiring achievement.
I’m currently on second round with my bookclub novel, and getting lots of Nice No’s, But No Cigar…it’s grimly painful but oddly validating…these incredible editors really are reading the story, and the reasons they decide not to buy are business ones, rather than my secret nightmare of ‘overwritten and rather dull’.
Ive never quite had this level of exposure, my current agents are Numbers Five and Six, and are absolute fighters. Whilst this book is out, they’ve got me writing a thriller (loving it) and they never falter in their enthusiasm and support. I can’t describe the difference having the right agents make to everything, from the workshopping of ideas, to handling being on sub and not going screaming mad.
Anyway, yours and Camilla’s advice to just keep writing lifts my heart, thank you to you both. And huzzah, to your next book, and the one after that!
Aw thank you! Yes she is v supportive, I am lucky! Good luck to you also xx