I hear so much about writers and rejections and was fearing the worst but what I received as a rejection made me feel quite proud about my efforts so far.
The rejector wrote:
"Thank you so much for your submission - I found it very moving and eloquent.
I'm afraid it is not quite right for ******** but I trust that you will find the right publisher in the near future.
All good wishes,
Actually, I got a rejection letter something like this 30-odd years ago, back when I was trying to sell all my rewrites of classic fairy tales together as one book with the title "Jimm's Fairy Tales" (now the name of my web-site).
I sent it to Hamish Hamilton, largely because I would have loved to be published by the people who brought out Raymond Briggs' masterpiece, Fungus The Bogeyman. I got a letter back saying "I really liked this and hope that you have success placing it elsewhere. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit our list." (Or something like that.)
How lovely to hear that the company concerned actually thinks there's a human being behind the book that 's being rejected.
Very best of luck with the next one, Jeremy.
If nothing else it's nice to know they've not just read the first few lines and discarded it. That would certainly give me the motivation to try elsewhere.