It occurred to me after I started this thread that discussing rejection letters was a rather discouraging topic. So, let's turn this one around: What's the best writing advice you've ever received? Whose encouragement has meant the most to you?

The best encouragement I've ever had was receiving reviews. I still find it amazing that anyone actually likes to read what I wrote! So if I get a positive comment about my work, it majes me that much more interested in writing more. The best advice I ever got... um, hard to say. I've gotten some good pointers on technical stuff, and I've had some great feedback from betas on plot issues and such, but no one comment particularly stands out in my mind. Fortunately I've never received a rejection letter... then again, I haven't really submitted anything! Oh wait... I did enter lulu's short story contest last November, and didn't win... does that 'you didn't win' email count?

I shopped my first book for two years before deciding to self-publish. I got over 200 rejection letters and have kept them as an 'F you, I'm not giving up' motivation. The worst one I got from an agent compared my book to the movie Blade. There is no connection what so ever, so I don't know what he was reading. The best was from a well-known agent who told me to keep working on it and not give up, as it had promise but just wasn't quite ready. She gave some specific pointers as well. The best encouragement comes from the fans. There's nothing like having them say 'I can't wait for your next one!'

Even without reviews being left, I find it encouraging to see the hit counts, and it's especially interesting at fanfiction.net because there, you can see what countries in the world the people reading your fics are in. Over there, our fandom is a tiny backwater amidst the Twilight and the "Harry Potter-sized ones, but seeing that there is still a global community of people, on every continent, interested in Gatch/BOTP is a nice feeling.

Well, I can't really narrow things down to just one bit of advice. I received encouragement now and then from different teachers when I was in school, the reviews I get from all of you, and the times when my work's accepted by professional publications. As far as rejections go, I generally don't let them bother me, especially when my smaller pieces are concerned. If I get a form letter, I take it as just a matter of business -- try a couple of other places, and I usually will find a home for that work. A couple of times an editor jotted a quick note on the form letter ("Not quite what I'm after -- sorry. Try again."), and I felt honored for that, because it meant that they saw something in my work even though it wasn't the right fit for the publication. (And it is especially meaningful if that editor has a huge slush pile to wade through!) If I'm offended by a rejection, it's because it was done unprofessionally. I have two examples. The first one was from an award-winning haiku journal that got its contributions from both the U.S. and Japan. It was obvious that my submission hadn't even been looked at -- they simply stuffed it into the return envelope with a form letter suggesting I start reading poetry before submitting it to publications! (If they'd bothered to glance at my cover letter, they would have seen a nice little list of the U.S. and Canadian publications that had printed my work.) I later found out that this journal had developed its own stable of contributors and wouldn't even look at new writers. (It would've been nice if they'd mentioned that in their call for submissions!) The other example came from a new "small press" that had put out a call for submissions for the premier issue of a poetry & fiction journal. I sent a couple of poems, and got back a personal reply from the "editor". In this rejection letter, she attacked my manuscripts' format (I use a standard format in my submissions), called my work "trite", and wondered why a "country hick" like me would dare to think they could aspire to the level of her publication. (I guess she thought that Hoosiers could never know more than cornstalks and scarecrows.) This happened in mid-2002, and the "premier issue" still hasn't come out. (I think it was a case of somebody getting some money and using it to stroke her ego by attacking others.)

I've never submitted anything for publication, at least original work. I have however, submitted to some vigorously moderated archives, and worked for one. Thus I've written a few. While form letters can be frustrating, they can save time especially for places that are short-staffed or run on volunteered time. At SH, we used a form letter, but we used that as a base to keep members from thinking that one admin had it in for them. If everyone got the same basic letter, it was easier to take crap for using the form letter than have it look like someone was getting impersonal. We did, to a degree personalize them, letting people know exactly what they needed to do to get their story approved. Most of the time it was clean up your SPaG. A few times it was your plot is intriguing, but you really need a beta to clean it up. And rarely it was: Have you even read the F-in books! Those were usually trolls or underage authors that we eventually caught.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts. I think, for me, the best writing advice I got came tangled up with my worst rejection letter. I actually had forgotten about this rejection - I was so young and upset when it happened. When I was 16, I started submitting poems to magazines for publication. I had no idea what I was doing - I just opened Poet's Market to the "A" section (magazines are listed alphabetically) - and submitted to anything that looked remotely appropriate. Somehow, I submitted a rather detailed poem about kissing to a conservative religious publication. Well! They were extremely offended and said some terrible things about me. I was horribly upset, but I planned to keep the rejection letter because, at the time, I kept all of them. But my mom wouldn't let me. She said that the editor didn't know anything and threw my rejection letter in the trash. So, that wound up being my best advice too. Some editors - and your examples, EW, exemplify this - are so bad that the rejections don't even count. As far as fanfic goes, I love it when people comment on my stuff and I'm flattered when writers that I enjoy like my stories back. It occurred to me one day that even if my stuff isn't the best in the fandom, those top writers need things to read too. My favorite comment came when one of my betas got so wrapped up in something I wrote that she burned dinner! Amethyst, you bring up a good point. It's not easy being an editor (or gatekeeper) either. I appreciate that there are people in our fandom who have donated so much time and energy to giving us a place to hang out (thanks, Cep!)

Originally posted by ElectricWhite Well, I can't really narrow things down to just one bit of advice. I received encouragement now and then from different teachers when I was in school, the reviews I get from all of you, and the times when my work's accepted by professional publications. As far as rejections go, I generally don't let them bother me, especially when my smaller pieces are concerned. If I get a form letter, I take it as just a matter of business -- try a couple of other places, and I usually will find a home for that work. A couple of times an editor jotted a quick note on the form letter ("Not quite what I'm after -- sorry. Try again."), and I felt honored for that, because it meant that they saw something in my work even though it wasn't the right fit for the publication. (And it is especially meaningful if that editor has a huge slush pile to wade through!) If I'm offended by a rejection, it's because it was done unprofessionally. I have two examples. The first one was from an award-winning haiku journal that got its contributions from both the U.S. and Japan. It was obvious that my submission hadn't even been looked at -- they simply stuffed it into the return envelope with a form letter suggesting I start reading poetry before submitting it to publications! (If they'd bothered to glance at my cover letter, they would have seen a nice little list of the U.S. and Canadian publications that had printed my work.) I later found out that this journal had developed its own stable of contributors and wouldn't even look at new writers. (It would've been nice if they'd mentioned that in their call for submissions!) The other example came from a new "small press" that had put out a call for submissions for the premier issue of a poetry & fiction journal. I sent a couple of poems, and got back a personal reply from the "editor". In this rejection letter, she attacked my manuscripts' format (I use a standard format in my submissions), called my work "trite", and wondered why a "country hick" like me would dare to think they could aspire to the level of her publication. (I guess she thought that Hoosiers could never know more than cornstalks and scarecrows.) This happened in mid-2002, and the "premier issue" still hasn't come out. (I think it was a case of somebody getting some money and using it to stroke her ego by attacking others.)

EW, that small press jerk has no business publishing anything, but it sounds as if karma has come about if the publication has never seen the light of day.

Originally posted by jublke Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts. I think, for me, the best writing advice I got came tangled up with my worst rejection letter. I actually had forgotten about this rejection - I was so young and upset when it happened. When I was 16, I started submitting poems to magazines for publication. I had no idea what I was doing - I just opened Poet's Market to the "A" section (magazines are listed alphabetically) - and submitted to anything that looked remotely appropriate. Somehow, I submitted a rather detailed poem about kissing to a conservative religious publication. Well! They were extremely offended and said some terrible things about me. I was horribly upset, but I planned to keep the rejection letter because, at the time, I kept all of them. But my mom wouldn't let me. She said that the editor didn't know anything and threw my rejection letter in the trash. So, that wound up being my best advice too. Some editors - and your examples, EW, exemplify this - are so bad that the rejections don't even count. As far as fanfic goes, I love it when people comment on my stuff and I'm flattered when writers that I enjoy like my stories back. It occurred to me one day that even if my stuff isn't the best in the fandom, those top writers need things to read too. My favorite comment came when one of my betas got so wrapped up in something I wrote that she burned dinner! Amethyst, you bring up a good point. It's not easy being an editor (or gatekeeper) either. I appreciate that there are people in our fandom who have donated so much time and energy to giving us a place to hang out (thanks, Cep!)

That is one importnt point Jul. Make sure the publication/agent/publisher you are sending to is the appropriate one. It can save time and a lot of heart ache. I just attended a writing conference in Middleburg, Va yesterday. There was an agent there I had previously spoken to about the book I'm currently writing and I wanted to check in with him about submitting it to him when it is complete. He was very nice and said yes, which was wonderful. He gave a talk later and reminded us all this is a business and business decisions have to be made. He, too, has children to feed. One thing he did say I'll share as he really stressed it. When sending a submission, make sure you are following their guidelines. He participated in an event recently with authors that had asked for the first 15 pages of your project (book, story, proposal, etc.). Only 1 of the 30 odd participants followed the instructions. Most brought their whole work and others 20 pages, 30 pages, etc. He said he'd been sorely tempted to tell the rest of them not to bother if they couldn't follow simple instructions.

Wow, EW -there are some total jerks out there! I agree with Becky about the karma... My only encounters with publication have been academic. There are a couple of published articles out there with my name on them, in history journals. One was based on a paper I gave at a history conference (of an organization that picks 3 conference papers each year to include in their annual journal) and the other one was co-written with my dissertation adviser (who now that I think about it, was my best source of writing advice and encouragement -though not for fiction). It got some rejections first -though at least blandly polite ones!