The Nicest Rejection Letter

Rejection letters are inevitable. Over the last couple of months, while searching for an agent and publisher for my literary fiction novel, I've received a grand total of three. Anne Rice, a favorite author of mine, received seven for Interview with the Vampire. One of her letters read (paraphrasing): "I don't know what this is." Her reply (again paraphrasing–and I don't know if she actually sent this to the editor in question or simply thought it to herself): "Well, if you don't know what this project is, then obviously you're not the right publisher for the book." About a month ago, I ran into a former professor who told me that one of her friends sent out roughly 140 query letters before finding a publisher. So, with three rejections under my belt, maybe I'm not doing so bad. I allowed the first two rejections to sit in my e-mail inbox for a few days before deleting them. The first letter was pretty much: "Good luck with that one." The second featured no greeting or closing signature and was very bare bones. It went something like: "I'll pass. I was engaged, but not as engaged as I would've liked." Eventually, the letters went into the digital trash bin. Finally, I realized something. It's just the opinion of one person. Not that their opinion isn't valid... it likely just means that it wasn't the right match, for whatever reason.

Alas, the third and most recent letter is the nicest rejection that I've received thus far (and I'm not being facetious... this letter really is sweet): "Dear Mr. Gaddis, Thank you for sending us your query regarding your work. Unfortunately, you have come to us at a time when we are inundated with requests for assistance and representation. The need to allocate our time effectively forces us to decline participation in many worthy projects, and we regret that must be the decision in the case of this project as well.

We do appreciate your thinking of us, and wish you the best of luck with your book.

Best wishes." *Sigh. Why can't they all be so graceful? Regardless, I'll continue to move forward. The right match will come along. Hopefully, it won't be 140 attempts from now. And even if it is, so what? The important thing is for it to happen.