How not to handle Rejection

I think he was published for memoir, not fiction. So maybe he's got a style that suits that, but doesn't suit YA or romance or whatever it is he's trying for.

 

Dear Zoupskim,

Thank you for the opportunity to read "Betty Baxter, and the Infestation." Unfortunately, it was not selected for inclusion in UFO5.

Sorry about the bad news, and please try us again next year.

Sincerely,

Unidentified Funny Objects 5 editorial team

-------

ME: Oh well. Time to write some more.

 

I don't know about this. One of my favorite things is to be around writers behaving badly. Brilliant writing trumps bad behavior. Always. As it should.

As for the guy blogging, I just don't see this as such a big deal. It's been done before. There was a guy about twenty years ago who used to put up every single correspondence he had with agents and editors. It did piss some people off. And then he would just post their pissed off responses. I can't remember if he ever published or not, but it was interesting to read.

 

I think putting up an honest record of correspondence is a hell of a lot different than this totally one-sided, petulant, misogynistic whining.

 

Ultimately it doesn't really say anything about anyone other than him, though looking at her Twitter feed the agent is extremely upset by him.

I am intrigued by what he actually paid for. One of her posts says that she wasn't paid to attend the conference, its very rare to find a new client at the conference, and she only goes to support writers. Well, if it's $50 for ten minutes, someone is making $300 an hour out of her attendance.

He appears to think that meeting her might have led to a contract, she appears to be saying that was not the point of the meeting.

He also appears to be comparing himself to Earnest Hemingway, which having read his excerpts on his site is a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, I find the whole thing pretty depressing. I guess when you get to the point you are self funding yourself to fly from Wisconsin to Texas to spend $50 for a 10 minute meeting with an agent who has already rejected your last submission, you are pretty much as close to rock bottom as a wannabe can get.

:-(

 

The way he describes her body language is unsettling. What, does he think he's interviewing people for the great honor of publishing his work? I want to extend a piece of advice to any writers out there who think their work is somehow special.

Every possible story and premise has already been written. We are rehashing concepts and ideas as old as time.

If someone tells you that an idea isn't sticking, then MOVE ON.

It seems he spent his whole life never growing into a mature adult.

 

I read some of "Three's A Crowd" on the Amazon page Look Inside. That was more than enough. There are people far better equipped than me to explain to him why his books aren't selling.

His blog has turned into a 404 page now so it looks like he may have learned something.

 

The agent in question, Jennifer, has been really affected by this. Not only are these insults about her appearance splashed everywhere, but articles/blogs about it now show up on the first page when someone--like potential clients who AREN'T dicks--search for her.

I think this should be required reading for anyone annoyed about the query process. Remind them that agents are human too.

 

This is my first post on the forum. These are some very insightful perceptions from the writers here! It appears as if everyone nailed the situation (poor David) in one aspect or another All I can add to this discussion is that David has the cash to fly to Texas and give a 10 minute pitch for his beloved manuscript so he doesn't mind putting out the bucks if he believes it will help him get published. He also has an over-abundance of confidence and a driving desire to sell what he considers to be some really great stuff.

Actually, I found parts of his rendition entertaining. Even humorous. I would wish him the best...

IF, it what he wrote were fiction. It was so vindictive and inappropriately cruel. She is not a 'harlot', but just a lady who wants to be left alone at the bar. And David is such a bad sport about things, I can't imagine any of that any of his created characters would be that likable.

 

Ok. Just discovered all three pages of posters responses. Nightstar99, thanks for the links.
Now I'm just creeped out. And I can see why the agent is so upset. Chaosreigns, your instincts are good. David has some strange issues with the ladies.

 

He's one of those writers who's more interested in the setting than the scene I think.

 

Thanks for sharing this with us, ChaosReigns.

I find this whole blog post really strange. Strange for 2 reasons.

The first, and obvious reason, is counter-productivity. Of course, I can understand that when one gets rejected so much (although 319 can't possibly be true.) one gets frustrated. Frustrated even, perhaps, to the point of wanting to abandon writing altogether, or to choke the nearest industry insider with a bookmark. But I truly can't understand how one would think that writing something like this will actually help. If anything, it has done the opposite. The editor in question is - understandably - put off. Harassed would be a better word. To write bad things about the way a person handles his/her profession could be called arrogant, but to try to defame someone by mocking a person's physical appearance is just low, mean, and it just shows how weak this guy is. In a debate or discussion, underhanded methods like this are a telltale sign that someone can't handle a professional or otherwise adult discussion and has depleted all of his arguments. Any editor that he might contact in the future could look this up in a minute using Google, and it alone might be enough for a rejection. How this guy think that ranting in such a way could possibly contribute to his cause eludes me.

The other reason is this sentence in his post:

"After I'd ground to an inarticulate halt, Jennifer offered brief and condescending tips on the shifting "mood" of the market[.................]if I stick to any other genre other than the one I was talking about - for which I was miserably equipped and too old too grasp"

Now, something here tells me he did not do some proper research before walking up to this lady. I think it's pretty contradictory in the sense that he pays for an appointment with an editor he thinks is best suited for his work, but she then says that the mood of the market is switching and advising him to pick another genre. To pick another genre. He did not show her any of his writing. In the beginning he says that "My plan was to probe Jennifer's interest (which I'd studied in advance), then present her with written material, from my extensive oeuvre, that matched her deepest literary heart's desire."

If he truly had some work that matched her scope of interest, i.e. genre, she could either hook him up and promise to read something, or, if his pitch didn't interest her, advise him to rethink the pitch and market himself better, or advise him to rethink the plot and story. Why on earth would she advise him to pick another genre if she hadn't even written anything about him. Something tells me the guy just went up to the wrong editor. If I'm a fantasy editor, and I didn't like someones pitch, I'd tell them to work on that. Why would I tell them; " Meh. You know, new writers like you should head into the romance department these days." That, to me at least, doesn't make any sense at all. I mean, wouldn't any editor would want to have new writers being enthusiastic about the genre they specialize in?

 

Maybe she sensed that he wasn't enthusiastic and was just unsuccessfully chasing a trend. I think he was trying to write YA, and while you don't have to actually BE young to write YA, you have to be somewhat in touch with the teen mind. If she told him that? I agree with her completely.

Or maybe that aspect of the conversation was totally distorted by the same egotistical lens through which the guy clearly viewed the rest of the conversation.

If I have to pick one person to consider irrational in this scenario, it's not going to be the agent. In fact, we should probably have a link to this blog post in the "unreliable narrator" thread.

 

You're more than welcome to do so BayView, in all honesty, i want nothing more to do with this (the more i sit upon it, the more i wish i hadn't seen it)

 

There are positive sides to this, too. Others in the community (authors, agents, editors) are speaking up for Jennifer, rallying round her, and she seems to be dealing with it well despite the shock.

 

I read the two book synopses in the links provided by @Nightstar99 and I can't think of any books I ever wanted to read less. Even Dylan Saccoccio's novels would be amusing in their own, insane way. David's two novels promise to be unbearable. If he pitched either of those to the agent, I can understand very well why she seemed less than enthusiastic. Perhaps there is an audience for those kinds of novels, but I can't imagine who. And he esteems himself so highly as a writer...

 

Yeah, I'm utterly bored by the synopses. Like "bang my head on a desk to drive away the boredom" bored. As you said, there may be an audience somewhere out there for such books, but...it'll never be me. Even worse, both synopses and the blog post have this air of pretentiousness that makes them unbearably annoying. If these are any indication of how his work usually turns out, I'm not surprised by the 319 rejections.

 

I don't know why any of you are surprised by the number of rejections this guy got. Are none of you close to racking up a number like that? I sure have a pretty high number. I prefer not to know the exact number. Should he have quit after a certain number? Do you think writers are supposed to give up if they get a real lot of rejections?

 

Give up? No. Re-evaluate? Yes.

Besides, he's the one who made an issue of the number of rejections.

 

319 rejections for, I think, the same book?

Honestly, yeah, I'd have given up, at least for that book. I'd be surprised if there are that many reputable agents representing any one genre.

 

Based on the context it was raised in, it sounds like that number was for one book. He should've stopped and reevaluated long ago. Why is it getting rejected so many times, and is it something you can and want to fix?

I had one short story get rejected by maybe six or seven places. Eventually, I looked real hard at that story and decided it would be better suited for a short story collection some day down the road. After all, it had originally been written as part of a background for the main character of a novel I'm planning, and would have substantially more weight if you know where that character's arc ends.

 

He sounds like Dylan Saccocio when he says "In a twist no fiction writer would dare introduce". Blowing your own trumpet is about the least impressive thing you can do in a description of your work. Leave marketing to marketing people, after you've worked your story into the form that works. This guy should spend less time whining and more time getting tips and re-writing. If he's really that good he should prove it and get that potential right.

 

I notice he called the love guru character (who is totally irresponsible btw and I hope the story is supposed to make me want her to stay away) Bacchus (in the romance one). Like, obvious reference dude. Bacchus being a lustful god. Whose name is Bacchus anyway? I kind of have a sore spot for symbolically named character. You just don't need to call you're knife-wielding crazy assassin Jack Sharp to be clever. Although, I am quite realism minded.
Also the excerpt takes intentionally over-writing a description for emotional effect and turns it up to eleven. I wouldn't be surprised if he overwrites in general. The character description we get of Arlene could be more interesting, (Character? Feeling?) and maybe a little bit shorter just to be safe. I am definitely understanding the rejection. It's not terrible though. I again think he should spend more time rewriting his stuff to make it as good as he thinks it is.
I honestly don't understand all these people freaking out. The only bit of my stories I'm truly protective of, that I really don't want to change, is the key concepts and characters. I expect to edit writing, it's what I've always done, edit it. It's just about making the idea work with the right writing.

 

I find it interesting that he seems to simultaneously present himself as That Oh Woe Underappreciated Artist and A Seasoned Veteran of the Literary Arts. He brags quite heavily, though not unprofessionally about his best-selling Sumo non-fiction book, and apparently he got New England Press Association awards as an editor. Maybe he should stick to those if he's so good. Being rejected 319 times for fiction publishing and making hissy fits about it doesn't say good things about your future in that area.