Something New – Tuesday Tutorial

So, I’m going to be introducing something called Tuesday Tutorial, where I talk about industry “stuffs”. I’m going to start next week, and I’m going to do a shout out on Twitter for items people would like me to talk about. I already have some ideas, but we all know everyone can always use more ideas. =)

What would you like to know/learn/hear about?

Yes, you will be rejected.

One of the hardest things for me do to is reject my own authors. Authors I have contracted and worked with and have fallen in love with their voices and stories.  But the sad truth of it is, you can’t slam one out of the park every time. It just doesn’t happen. To anyone.

There aren’t always a lot of reasons for the rejection, either. I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. Sometimes it’s as simple as “I didn’t love it enough”, or “I just didn’t connect with it enough”. How do you explain that to someone? How do you give them feedback on that? You really can’t. Unless I fall in love with a story, I won’t contract it. I’m not going to fall in love with every story I read, no matter who it’s by.

The majority of times I reject something submitted to me by an author I’ve worked with, it’s because I just didn’t LOVE it…but I can’t tell you why. Most of the time I can’t put my finger on why I don’t love it. There’s just something missing from it for me. As with all other editors, we’re only allowed a certain amount of slots a year/per month, which means those slots are very very precious to me. I can’t fill them with things I don’t absolutely fall head over heels in love with.

When your editor rejects you, it’s not personal. Please remember that. It’s one of those crappy parts of our job we hate. And trust me, we all anguish over it.

I Quit!

Yup, that’s right. I quit my evil day job last week. Well, I gave them my two week notice at least. =) My last day with them will be on July 8. Woo hoo! Time for a new chapter in life.

I was promoted last week to Assistant Managing Editor at Samhain Publishing and will be doing that full time from now on. Not many people get the chance to actually have their dream job full time ( instead of editing on the side like I was), and I jumped at the opportunity.

I’m really excited to get started full-time and get into the swing of things. I’m lucky that I’m with such a phenomenal publisher and working with such great people. =)

Form rejections

I’ve heard a lot of grumbling in general regarding form letters. And it’s one of those grumbles that’s pretty constant and I think it always will be. It’s just “one of those things”. I see agents, authors, aspiring authors and publishers alike talk about it. (No, you’re not pre-published. Someone please make this term go away.)

The problem I run into, when I see these things, is that the author grumbles about a form letter on a blog or forum, and then grumbles about the feedback they do get. Hmmm… anyone see where I’m going with this? Anyone? Many publishers, such as Samhain, have been forced to move to using form rejection letters for that exact reason.

When I first started with Samhain a few years ago, it was a no-no to use a form rejection. Yes, we were able to every once in a while, but that was usually because we really had no feedback to give. Sometimes there really isn’t anything wrong with a book, per se, it just isn’t our cup of tea. And you’ll have that EVERYWHERE. It’s just part of this business. But it was expected of us to fairly evaluate a submission and give the author feedback as to why the manuscript didn’t work for us and what we suggested they work on.

There have been authors who have posted rejection letters and then picked them apart to point out how wrong the publisher is. (An aside…posting a rejection letter at all is pretty unprofessional. And yes, we look at potential authors websites and blogs. Unprofessionalism can and will cost you a contract. There’s always another book down the line just as good as yours, if not better.)

And after all of this, people grumble about getting a form rejection. Do I need to spell this one out? Publishers give form rejections because authors force us to. It’s really as simple as that. When we get negative feedback about our feedback on a manuscript, that means we’re not going to put the effort into a detailed rejection. Contrary to what many may think, a detailed rejection letter isn’t a snap to sit down and do. It takes a lot of time, thought and effort. And if we’re getting negative feedback in return, it’s a lot easier and quicker for us to send off a form letter.

Just some food for thought.

And no, I had no particular authors or publishers in my mind when writing this. It’s just a general post.