Hi
Not really a question and I don't normally post about anything but thought I would share this to encourage anyone else who has been rejected a gazillion times and wonders what that's all about. I am in the process of submitting a novel to UK agents. One agent says 'It's written well but I wouldn't be able to find a publisher for it', another says 'it's a commercially attractive idea but the writing isn't strong enough' I guess I need to keep on taking the crazy pills then.
Hi I had several rejection letters when I sent off my writing and no matter how they phrase it a rejection is a rejection. I'm in the process of re writing as we speak, and I'm preparing for more rejections. The only thing that keeps me keeping on is the fact that J K Rowling got about sixteen rejections and we know what happened there! I ask friends and family for feedback as well as asking myself, 'would someone pay to read this story?'
Sounds like a contradiction there: one says it's well written but not commercially viable, as they couldn't find a publisher, and the other says it is commercially viable but you need to write better.
Get yourself an editor to look over it with a dispassionate eye, and see what they say about the writing itself.
David, Your rejection slips sound similar. Perhaps they are typically polite industry standard rejections. I suggest you use a professional literary editor to look at your novel.
Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil—but there is no way around them - Isaac Asimov