Fuck you trad publishing!
Or my reaction to a rejection received at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday. Sorry for the cussing.
*Image taken from Canva.
Just another rant, nothing to see here, carry on! (Some of you may have heard this from me, I’m sorry for repeating myself!) Not to be taken too seriously.
I have a folder on my phone where I write down all the work I’ve submitted and where. It bears the unoriginal title “Submissions”. The subtitle is a gem though. It says “you have nothing to lose”, what I meant by it was - the stories are written, done, and no one can take that away from me. Not every writer gets as far as to finish a story, no matter how long or short! The real accomplishment is the story, publishing it would just be that sweet cherry on the top. In the case of trad publishing - a big, fat juicy cherry sitting on the creamiest monster cake ever.
This morning, around 2:00 a.m. I received another rejection. I wonder how insensible, blunt or just plain sinister those folks are to send out rejections on a weekend! Okay, it might have been earlier in the US, but still - it’s Sunday. Even if it’s an automatic reply, they could’ve scheduled to send it out on Monday. (And I shouldn’t keep the phone near my bed at night…)
Oh, it’s not the worst timing, sure! There was this one rejection I received on the second day of Christmas (Dec 26). Since it was an individually taylored rejection (their policy), it means the editor was working on Christmas day. Which might explain the unpleasant tone of the rejection letter. I cannot imagine somebody working happily by their computer on Christmas day, writing rejection emails. Except for the Grinch. Yeah.
(See the 2:00 a.m. rejection letter below).
This time it wasn’t the poor quality of the story. A friend and a skilled writer (who has actually studied the craft, unlike me!) helped me fix the story profoundly. So, what was the problem this time?! The fact that my story didn’t make it into the top 20 they accepted, is a real kick in the gut. It’s not like 3, it’s 20.
Would I be happy to receive a “yes” for a change? Of course! I’d be fucking ecstatic! Who wouldn’t be…?
What would I say to the trad publishers, if I could?! I’d say: just remember - your “no” goes both ways! Your “no” to me in most cases means my “no” to you! (I usually don’t send more stuff to a place that has rejected me once). I hope when the AI written stories sent to you by fraud scribblers overflood your email, on that glorious day when you’re choking on AI shit, you’ll remember all the good, original work written by real authors you’ve rejected, like a dying man grasping to the life he could’ve had! Because that’s what this is - the death of the traditional publishing we are witnessing. If I sound harsh, it’s just because I am, in fact, harsh. Yes, I am bitter.
Will I still be sending out queries to trad publishers? I probably will. I am that stupid, stubborn dreamer type, who’ll bang her head against the wall until it bleeds, before she finally stops (what do you want, my Grandpa was russian, that terrible mentality is persistent as fuck, if they’re determined to get something!).
In the end, it’s not the publishers or agents I want to entertain, it’s the readers. I’ll try with the trad publishers just a bit more. I’ll try. Then I’m off to self publishing. Will I succeed financially? Probably not, but at least my book will be out there, with the readers. If at least one reader will be happily entertained - it’s a win!
Forgive me while I wax philosophical for a moment.
In some ways, the trad publishing submission process is a lot like the college admissions process, which I had quite a bit of exposure to as a high school English teacher.
The math is certainly similar. The single-digit acceptance percentage for trad publishing (an estimated 3% where books are concerned) is in line with the single digit acceptance percentage for highly competitive schools. (Such schools are more quiet about it now, but they used to brag openly about what a small percentage got admitted.)
Not long before I retired, I had student who was proficient in four languages (English, Italian, Chinese, Japanese). He was in mostly AP and Honors classes and aced them all, he was a top scorer on the SAT, he was a star athlete--and even he only got into his second choice school.
As one of my former students said, "It's a crap shoot. You do the best you can in school. You do the best you can on the application. And then you wait. Maybe you'll get in. Maybe you won't. Past a certain point, you have no control over that."
The only way to survive the stress is to look at the whole thing philosophically. Most people won't get into their dream school--and most people won't get traditionally published. As I used to tell my students, "Follow your dreams--but have a Plan B."
That doesn't mean don't try trad publishing. It just means don't expect that it will happen. If it does, great. If not, there are alternatives. They may not be as lucrative, though I know trad published authors who didn't do that well and indies who are making a comfortable living. But at least you may bring people some joy with your stories.
When I first started, I had dreams of bestseller lists and movie deals (as we almost all do in the beginning). I became much happier when I put those in the rearview and became content if every so often someone got a little joy from my writing. That we can all achieve. The rest will happen or it won't. All we can do is write as well as we can. Past a certain point, the rest is out of our control.
Kathrine, I think it's time to stop trying to go the trad publisher route. I understand why you want to do it, but in my opinion, it's destroying your soul.
You are a fantastic writer and if you took all of your stories and published them, I'd buy each and every book.