A short but incredibly funny video about a writer reacting to a bounce: Bernard's Letter.
I still firmly believe that nothing beats success, or more precisely, nothing makes a publisher squirm more than to know a writer they kicked out the door went on to make a whole pile of money for another house. Although my bestselling author/handcuffed editor/unpublished manuscript barbecue fantasy does run a close second.
What's your idea of the ultimate writer's revenge?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Selling something somebody passed on and making gobs of money.
ReplyDelete;o)
Although I'm satisfied just selling something that I was told wasn't right for the market.
Last year when I was shopping around for an agent, one lady I had been interested in read part of the novella I was working on for Berkley's Hot Spell anthology, and one of my vamp books published thru EC.
She declined, stating she didn't think either one were right for the market.
Best vindication was when the editor at Berkley loved the story. And I ended up with an agent I adore, so guess it all worked out the way it needed to.
I never fail to mention my early struggles & rejections whenever I'm interviewed, although I don't mention publishers by name. That's my revenge (although it's more of a public 'told-you-so')
ReplyDeleteBut let's face it - editors and agents probably won't even remember they once saw your MS, so it's a hollow victory.
Writing well is the best revenge.
ReplyDeleteThe best revenge is success! Although I'm grateful that a publisher I once targeted rejected me. It would have been a terrible fit and I'm much better off where I am.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHmm.. I agree that success is the best revenge, with specifics.
ReplyDeleteIf the target of revenge is an author:
They come to me for a blurb and I reply, "I don't know how to say this to you, but you suck."
If the target is a publisher:
"You can't afford me!"
The deleted comment is mine (typo)
You all clearly lack perspective. Do you even remember what that rejection felt like?
ReplyDeleteI think a good old fashioned flaming shitbag on the front step, combined with a ding dong ditch is the best.
I'm with Oliver on this one. (But the fellow in the viddy had the right idea. A flugel horn, yeeeessss!) But what's a ding dong ditch?
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of rejections, IMO nothing compares with Naomi Kritzer's short story, The Devil's Mail Box. That was one of the few times I sent a stranger fan mail -- I had to tell her how much I'd loved her story.
In my fantasy I'm being interviewed on Oprah about my new mega-selling book--and not because I lied about anything. And since it's a fantasy my hair looks fabulous.
ReplyDeleteIn reality the first has a better chance of happening than the latter.
lol... I think a good old fashioned flaming shitbag on the front step, combined with a ding dong ditch is the best.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's a female thing. Yeah while the flaming stink bomb sounds like fun, in the long run, once it's cleaned up, the joy is over. Plus it's so messy.
Getting it over on them by reigning supreme on the best sellers lists for years to come, and them sitting there stewing, thinking how did I let that get away ... now that is gonna last.
I don't think that 99.999% of editors/agents will remember they rejected you, and fewer still will care, even if you do become a bestseller. They didn't believe in you then, and they wouldn't have supported you, and you wouldn't have BECOME a bestseller because you would have been so neglected.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I have gotten two breathtakingly stupid rejections and one that was simply wrongheaded. One house wanted me to make my books funny. Another thought that a (very, very traditional) Pygmalion plot was to edgy for the genre. (It was a well-respected agency in other genres, but it was just then breaking into romance. Obviously, they didn't do enough market research!) And when I submitted THE VEIL OF NIGHT to a contest as an unpub, a small-press publisher told me that no one could possibly like the story because the heroine was too mean and I should rewrite it so that she's sacrificing everything to save her family and to make the whole thing lighter and sweeter--an idea I was about as interested in as I was in pulling out my own toenails.
When VEIL sold and was very successful, did I remember the two editors and the agent? Sure. Did I chuckle inside? Of course. But I didn't imagine that they wowuld remember me!
I've heard a few editors say that they remembered submissions that they rejected that went on to be bestsellers. The two that were speaking said that they did take a moment to kick themselves.
ReplyDeleteMy bet is that the editors who rejected Harry Potter will kick themselves for a lifetime. *g*
Not every agent or editor is right for you or your work.
ReplyDeleteSometimes they have done you a favor.