10th
Rejection Letters: A Theory
A Gotham Writers workshop teacher brought a bunch of his rejection letters to class once. He explained that there is a whole caste system of rejection letters from publishers. They range from the Real, Bona Fide Rejection — often printed on a form letter and addressed to Whom It May Concern — to the You’re Not Really a Reject, You’re Practically On the Waiting List! Rejection Letter:
“Dear (insert correctly spelled name), While we are going to pass at this time, we encourage you to keep submitting. Best regards…”
This professor was really psyched because he had been getting a lot of rejection letters of the waiting list variety. It was as if he was practically admitted to a bunch of ivies, even though he wouldn’t end up going to college at all unless he did something about revising his essay. At least, this is what we all joked.
The last joke was on us though. After wallpapering his apartment and fridge (so we joked some more) with rejection letters of every single short story he had ever written, his first novel was accepted for publication by Penguin.
The letter of acceptance even spelled his ghostwriter’s name correctly.
