Do Published Authors Get Rejected?

There’s a popular myth among the Unpublished (I hate that term pre-published. It’s meaningless to me.). The myth is that, once you break in–once you sell a book, rejections don’t happen anymore. The “Dear Author” letters stop and it’s more of a “This proposal doesn’t work for me, could you change it?” sort of thing.

Now I’ve been told this isn’t true, but a part of me secretly wonders. Once you are writing for a particular editor and have been for some time, do published authors ever get flat-out-rejected? I mean form-letter rejected. Or is it sugar-coated? What happens when you cross that mysterious realm?

Harlequin is trying to speed up its response times, which is wonderful. The problem is, the personalized rejection letters are going away. It seems to be happening a lot in the larger houses, too. Now see, I live for these personalized rejections (please don’t tell me that these, too, are form letters). When an editor takes the time to encourage me, to tell me that my writing is strong, those are the letters that keep me going. I sometimes will reread them, to find a grain of hope in the words.

“Dear Author” letters? Nope, they just don’t cut it. Even worse, when it’s signed “The Editors.” This is what those rejection letters are really saying (in my opinion):

“Dear Author (we don’t remember your name and we really don’t care”:

Thank you for the chance to consider your project, which I regretfully feel isn’t right for our list. (I read the first line and chucked it. I have fifteen authors I’m juggling, line edits to do, back cover copy to write, and I don’t need another story like this one.)

I apologize for the form letter, but the number of submissions we receive makes it unfeasible to send a personal response. (Your work reminded me of reading the dictionary. There aren’t enough words to describe how awful it was).

Thanks again for thinking of us at X Publisher, though, and I wish you success in finding the right home for this story. (Please don’t ever send it back to us!)

Sincerely,
The Editors

Can you tell this has been a rough week for me? Three rejections in, what, two weeks? My solution? I sent out another query this morning. (Mantra: This is a business. Don’t sweat it. Move on and write something else.)

History trivia: The stethoscope was introduced in 1819, the modern clinical thermometer in 1867. Blood transfusions, which were demonstrated in the seventeenth century, were revived in 1818 but were not carried out on any scale until the American Civil War.