Dear Author,
Thank you for sending us your wonderful manuscript. It is flawlessly written, oh so entertaining and deeply profound. Unfortunately, it’s not right for our list.
Best of luck!
The Editors
Rejection letters. They can be frustrating, agonizing, even baffling. Truth is, unless you are dripping with celebrity or happen to be the very close relative of a publisher, rejection letters are an inevitable reality for most writers, even oft-published veterans.
The trick --after you’ve screamed, cried or cursed-- is deciding whether there’s a speck of truth in what the editor is saying so you can revise accordingly or move on.
But what are the editors saying? What do they mean when they say your manuscript is “too slight” or “doesn’t feel satisfying enough”? Is there a guide to all this gobbledygook?
There is now--thanks to Viking senior editor Melanie Cecka.
Cecka wrote the book on gobbledygook. That is to say she recently authored a three-page handout detailing the meaning behind nearly 50 words and phrases commonly found in rejection letters.
Her presentation, “Reading Between The Lines: What Key Words In A Rejection Letter Can Reveal About Your Writing,” was a highlight of the 2001 SCBWI-Oregon Writers and Illustrators Retreat at Silver Falls.
Once I got a copy of Cecka’s handout, I felt like a kid who discovered the answer sheet to an upcoming final. These were crib notes, par excellence. Among the most helpful:
- Slight: not enough going on. Premise seems too weak to build a story around.
- Sentimental: reflects an author’s interest in their own childhood experiences or views. Stories may be thinly cloaked memoirs.
- Lacks staying power: doesn’t strike a nerve or may not be the kind of story a child will want to read over and over again.
- Abstract: may contain lofty or arch ideas that a younger reader might not follow; often a case of the author trying to be too quirky or clever.
- Familiar: too many competing books or similar stories. Example: yet another retelling of a classic fairy tale.
- Quiet: not enough happens, lacks an inner propulsion to move the story forward. A “mood” story.
- One-joke book: a story that’s all about building to the punch-line, but there’s nothing else to it.
- Too episodic: a list-like plot; a series of events that don’t necessarily add up to a complete story.
- Doesn’t engage: lacks tension or an emotional quality that would draw the reader in and hold their interest.
- Better as a magazine article: a good premise that’s not strong enough to support an entire book. Quiet stories/short stories often fall into this category.
- Not right for our list: for example, a science fiction novel pitched to an editor who publishes only non-fiction; teacher or curricular-linked materials that are sent to a trade publisher rather than an institutional publisher. May also be an apologetic catch-all for manuscripts that just don’t measure up to house standards.
Cecka cautioned that these were her definitions; other editors might translate these terms differently.
Still, when trying to crack the code of Rejection-speak, one editor’s guidance is far better than none.
