It dawned on me this morning as I rejected nine submissions that it’s a bit fatuous, to say the least, to critique the rejecting habits of editors without looking at my own. One of the worst moments of my publishing life arrived when I met a writer, now a McArthur Genius Grant winner, who reminded me that I rejected his first novel some years earlier. Cringe. He even remembered what I said. More cringing and self-flagellation. Apparently, I said the book didn’t have a domino effect. A domino effect!? What, did I go to college at the University of Milton Bradley?What was I thinking. I’ve passed on some other big writers in my day, but he’s the one I’ll live to regret.

But back to my rejecting style. Well, all I can say in my defense is that I look at everything that comes my way. When I was a young editor I learned that Ordinary People was found in the slush pile and that had been one of my favorite books in high school. So I look at everything. And I know pretty quickly if it’s for me. And if I don’t have anything nice to say, I say it’s not for me. And if I have something constructive to say, I try to add that. I get a lot of thank you notes for my rejections which leads me to think I’m being too nice. When I mentioned this to another agent, she was astonished. She’s never received a thank you note for her rejections and she looked at me as if I were an imbecile. I’m sure I’ve sent some curt notes and I’m sure some manuscripts have fallen through the cracks.

I think writers suffer enough. But it’s also important to get your shit together and only send out material that is the best it can be and that you’ve crossed all the t’s and all that jazz. There are really good proposal writing books out there (I think Susan Rabiner wrote one), so familiarize yourself with the process; in other words when you send something out, make it your best shot. And if you get rejected, fuck em. No one can stop you but yourself.

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