Justin, a friend from way back in junior high and high school, told me the following story on Facebook, to cheer me up about one of my rejection letters:
“When I got out of college I applied to the scouting departments of 8 different NFL teams….and I kept the rejection letters. Some teams sent nothing, but the Bengals sent a rejection letter on the best paper stock…”
How cool is that? I know that if I sent something to somewhere famous, like the New York Times, I might keep the rejection letter (if I were brave enough) because it would be on the official letterhead. I should note: Justin never played football–he was just a fan. But his very personal souvenirs create a new version of “rejection letter” that I really like.
I also really appreciated Karin’s comment on my last post– I am really inspired that she sent a story off to five different publishers. I would be so proud if I knew my grandmother, aunt, or sister had done that. To believe in a story, and love it enough to want to send it into the world–that’s beautiful.
And finally, Matt found this video earlier this evening, and it thrilled me. After watching it, I was wide awake, and remembered not only how much I loved teaching, but that _it will be okay_. It might be cheesy to say the following about a really amazing video, but I actually thought, “In this moment, I don’t care if the next two letters are rejections, too. There are tons of amazing things I could do.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0aDXekfyM
I know the link isn’t pretty, but just click to get to the video, because it is unbelievably great. Fifth graders, singing _in goosebump harmony_, “The Eye of the Tiger.” You will die when you see how _into_ the song and singing these kids are–and they are really, really beautiful singers.
See? Tons of amazing things any of us could do.
We forget that success is never easy. Think of how many photographs have to be taken to get that one wonderful one that we see in print. K reminded me about the difficulty of rejections for writers. I know A has gotten tired of them. At some point you feel like you are wasting your time and money sending things out to only have them be rejected. I was with L when she was shopping for a book for A’s first birthday. She wanted a board book that actually had a story to it, not just pictures and words that were more or less nonsense. It is not just that we think we could do that (write a good little story for a board book) but an editor and a publisher have to think people will buy it. Sigh. I liked K’s point that God has a plan but I also like the idea of thinking of rejection letters in a whole different way. You are not alone. (And I just loved the PS22 singers how cool is that.)
I have some friends in publishing here in NYC, and they say that if you want to get a book published, look around to see what else is popular– if the Barnes & Noble tables are filled with teen vampire books, another teen vampire book will get the publisher excited. It seems counter-intuitive to me, but it would explain why all the board books are the same– and why someone with a new board book idea would be getting rejected.
I will be caring the faces of those beautiful children singing Eye of the Tiger while I contemplate writing something that might get published.