Way back in February, I took a fateful hike through the woods around beautiful Lake Liberty. Thus began my journey into the world of literary rejection. This post is not about the negative (or Beautiful) aspects of rejection but instead I thought I would share two awesome experiences that prove rejection isn’t all bad.

The first being an email I recieved from an  editor of Arcadia Literary Journal. I’d submitted three poems, the first poems I’d ever to submitted (and I now wish I had been in a more optimistic mood when sending) and they couldn’t be more different in terms of topic (the desire to be domestic, a virgin drug experience and obesession). The email from Mr. Giles started with the standard, “Thank you for submitting your work but we will not be able to publish it at this time” but then kept going…into a solid paragraph. I got the email on my phone and as I scrolled down the tiny screen of my blackberry I am sure my eyes were the size of quarters. Mr. Giles had taken the time to explain why it had taken so long for me to hear from his journal and not just explain, he broke it all the way down – all the way down- to a word. One word that created a phrase that was the hinge of my poem. This phrase, that depending on the reader, could make or break if the poem “worked”. I couldn’t believe it. Here was the reason that I continued to write because while writing had always been something I did for me, it was something I kept doing when it became something I could see connecting me with other people. It wasn’t real to me that someone actually read and enjoyed/ fucking hated my work until I got that email. What a heady feeling. My head was in the clouds for days.I thanked Mr. Giles for his time and effort and became determined to submit more work. I’d heard from all of the first wave submissions except one and as time passed I started to get excited that maybe I would have my first acceptance soon. Read more »

Dean Wesley Smith has got something against the publishing world, and so he’s writing a book about it, Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing.

Smith, known primarily for his book adaptations of television shows, movies, etc., has identified over twenty-five of what he says are writing and publishing myths, and has been ever so kind as to set writers straight with a series of book chapters on his website (which, if you enjoy, you are invited to donate toward). But what Smith seems to have forgotten is that the entire writing/editing/publishing/agenting/reading world is subjective, and that his opinion does not make something fact.

To be sure, there are some gems up there, and some pretty unarguable statements: writing slowly does not mean writing well, and writing quickly does not mean writing poorly; all writers are different, have different habits and strengths and weaknesses; writing requires practice. Most (though not all) of what I agreed with had to do with writing advice—which is unsurprising given that Smith has published over ninety books (even if he did have a pre-established base for many of them, such as character and world).

What he really seems to hate, though, are agents*. He is quick to mention the 17-year relationship with his own agent and that he is friends with a few agents, but it is all but impossible to miss his disdain for their usefulness, unless they are top tier, and especially for new writers.

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