We've all been there. When the rejections start piling up (sometimes one right after the other), our inner baby threatens to come out.
Nathan Bransford posted about this in his blog yesterday, but I wanted to touch upon it here.
There's nothing wrong with feeling sensitive about our work, but it's important that we keep our senses. It often may be pretty tempting to hit reply when we receive a rather personal and (we feel) mean rejection letter, but that moment of passion could possibly ruin our career. I certainly hope that every writer is aware that agents tend to converse amongst each other.
I think the best thing that a writer can do is learn to whimper to himself and his spouse, friends, family, but NOT to the professionals! Being sensitive is natural for a writer, but keep your senses! Don't rant to the people who control the success (or lack thereof) of your future.
Any thoughts? Are you a sensitive person or do you take critique and rejections in stride?
~Emily White
I've been following some of the drama I think you're referring to. I'm very sensitive, and when I feel attacked, snubbed or put down by others, my instinct is to lash out. I always feel the need to defend myself for some reason.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right. If I want to make it - be agented and published - I need to be very careful about what I say in any public forum. Especially the internet.
It's not hard for me to accept rejection from agents, because I know what to expect and what I'm getting myself into when I query. I've heard of people who've hit the reply button, and lashed out, but that doesn't make any sense to me. Kind of like, "don't bite the hand that feeds you", even if it's not that specific hand. You're right. Agents DO talk to one another, and I have a feeling it would be pretty easy to get blacklisted for being arrogant and childish.
Oh my goodness, you guys! I just submitted a flash fiction to Shock Totem and IN THEIR GUIDELINES they said they will not accept submissions from _email address_. They actually put the email address, but out of respect for privacy, I'm not doing so here.
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect example! This person is quite literally blacklisted in every sence of the word.
And Kim, I've been on a LOT of internet communities over the years and I've seen a LOT of people lose it. It's amazing. I'm definitely sensitive to the point of typing out my argument, but I rarely hit enter (it's therapeutic). That's the wonderful thing about the internet--we can type whatever we want and still have time to cool down before we hit enter.
Although, I think that small rants are still somewhat accepted on internet communities (as long as you don't take it too far), but rants to agents and publishers are a huge no-no.
Hmmm...I responded to this earlier, but apparently, it did not save. Well here it is again:
ReplyDeleteLydia,
AHAHAHAHAHA! That is hilarious! Very divaesque.