F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

It Happens To The Best of Us

by

Once again, another writer friend of mine, Joe Ponepinto, received that worst-ever rejection letter we could receive. Worse than being told your writing sucks, go kill yourself.

This, however, has become the norm in the traditional publishing world. No longer is “good”  nor “great” good or great enough. It has become a world where “what does the publishing house think they can sell?”

And, no, your guess is not as good as mine. None of our guesses are. The only guesses that are allowed are those of the bean counters. Not the agents, not the editors. Bean counters. People who crunch numbers for a living, not read words. Manipulate them. I have nothing against bean counters…just the way they are being employed…by an industry (we’re talking upper-level executives, here, not the in-the-trenches managers, et cetera, so much) that doesn’t appear to really care about authors, no matter what great PR articles are written about how much they claim they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, stuff sells, they’re selling it…but so can other stuff. Stuff with more substance, intelligence, panache.

When you hear or read words like that, what are you supposed to think?

If Joe’s—or any of our—work wasn’t really good, they would have said it. But they didn’t. All “they” said was that they didn’t feel they could place his work. Even though it was “engaging,” “appealing,” and possessed “real energy and imagination.”

Really, traditional publishing, what are we supposed to think?

And you wonder why.

Sigh.

But, luckily for us, these days the traditional houses are not the only game in town.

Sorry to hear about that, Joe, but I think your current efforts are definitely headed in the correct direction. You’re a powerful writer, and I know you’ll come into your own!

Write on!

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Comments

  1. I try, really try to understand why the mainstream publishing business caters to the low brow tastes–because if they don’t sell stuff they can’t stay in business. But why must they exalt the inane? Why allow the tastes of the least educated among us to make the decisions about the direction of the culture? Whatever happened to leadership opinion-makers? They’re sequestered in their gated communities, counting their money and chanting, “We’ve got ours, we’ve got ours…”

    • Got no idea. ANYTHING can be sold, even crap—and this isn’t saying that everything being sold *is* crap, because, yes, occasionally, something really swell makes it out there—so it does baffle me…unless you want to get all “conspiracy theory” and go the route that this is done to dumb down the masses…but one could also get Zen and go in different directions, like it’s the “end of an era and ‘we’re bringin it,'” we all have deep, personal issues that prevent us from getting published while all the others just “wanted it more,” or maybe it’s just pure money, and those in charge simply don’t have the background, the upbringing to appreciate a finely turned phrase and movies are driving the publishing industry cause they’re piggybacking on the stupid and inane cause it’s already obviously selling.

      Take your pick. Your guess is as good as mine. :-]

      • To me, it seems some people are better writers than me, or speak to more universally held values. In that case I can try to get better. Some just have more good luck, and there ain’t nothin’ I can do ’bout that. But your point that some just wanted it more is true. I could have been a submissions demon and obsessed about getting my work in print. I could hound agents at conferences and buddy up to more famous writers. But I refuse to go down the path of obsession, because then I’m just buying into the corporate mindset. If enough of us stand up and say “no,” they would change. My backbone is in fine shape.

        • Well, there is a difference between “hounding” and “introducing and submitting,” I can tell you that much. Most agents and editors are at conferences TO be approached…not hounded. :-] But…give yourself some credit, my friend! You’re a *quite* a good writer! It’s not so much a case of obsession…as persistence.

  2. I like this post because I dislike it, and even though I don’t like to like as a rule, I am compelled to like it regardless since you dislike it as well.

    Make of this what you like. 😉

  3. Yes indeed the vague answers aren’t helpful… one thing I have to say about the few agents who’ve taken on my cookbook is that each of them knew it was esoteric and a long shot for selling, but they loved the project. So, at least in the nonfiction world, it can still happen that the writing/idea can carry without the bean counters coming into it. On the other hand, it turned out to be a book that didn’t command a huge amount of money..so what they thought was seemingly true. They simply had a passion for it.

    • And I do realize there are many reasons for why “anything is,” however, there just seems to be a rather large, rather obvious trend in the rejections I hear about from others (since I no longer submit…at least at present…). And I also realize how busy everyone is, which includes agents and editors. And that there are so many more people out in the world, so that translates to so many more writers looking to sell their wares. But, when I see and hear stuff like Joe’s…it just boggles my mind. He and the others don’t have to be the next Hemingway, but his work obviously has MERIT…and that used to be “it,” right? To have merit and to find someone who saw that, then that someone sent it to publishers, and the work got published? The whole process…if it ever was fixed…just seems so very broken.

      Again…it all circles back ’round to going Indie.

      Thanks for dropping by, my most frequented commenter! :-]