Writer Fail: What Not to Do #1

Today’s example comes from [link redacted, because this isn't about picking on someone it is about helping beginning writers be smarter].

What You Did Wrong:

Right for the beginning you declared that your story was “more than good enough for them”.

Why It Is Wrong:

It’s vaguely insulting in the manner used. Also, you are not privy to their tastes, the books they are preparing for publication or have recently accepted for publication. Not to mention that you are not the most neutral party when it comes to judging the merit of your own work. So leading off with a defensive, insulting tone is just setting yourself up for a big fail.

Don’t insult places that reject you in public forums. Just don’t. You cannot do it without looking like you’re on the wrong side of crazy.

What You Did Wrong:

Posting the reject you received.

Why It Is Wrong:

Bad taste. While posting rejections is debatable as a submission sin, in this case you haven’t posted it as a learning device, you’ve posted it in an attempt to ridicule, insult or otherwise bring negative attention to a publisher that dared to reject you. More making yourself look bad.

What You Did Wrong:

Failure to translate the rejection.

Why It Is Wrong:

This is a form rejection. You highlighted a portion of it, singling out that section for more attempts at ridicule. What you fail to realize is that first, a no is simply a no, not any kind of insult to you, your work, or anything else. Second a form reject implies that your book was far enough off the mark (or the editors were simply too busy) to merit a personalized rejection. This means you have A LOT of work to do on a your basic submission materials (that would be your manuscript.) Form rejections in quantity mean you aren’t close, you are still, for some reason completely off the mark. As a writer it is your job to find out how you aren’t even close and fix it. Not to post the rejections and attempt to make fun of them online.

What You Did Wrong:

Failure to use spell check.

Why It Is Wrong:

Convincing others, especially publishers, that you are ready to be published starts with showing that you know the basic rules of grammar and spelling. We all make mistakes (ugh, just look at my Twitter feed for examples) but it is especially important that any public message or ridiculing be well written and without spelling and grammar mistakes. Maybe this reflects the states of your manuscript (if so this is a huge clue as to why you were rejected), and maybe it doesn’t, regardless people will assume that it does and in the end you just make yourself look bad.

What You Did Wrong:

Encourage your blog readers to email the press and tell them how wrong they are about your work.

Why It Is Wrong:

I shouldn’t have to tell you this one, really, I shouldn’t. But here goes. You will not change the publisher’s mind. What you will do (besides looking utterly unprofessional) is get a bunch of people who say they will buy your book (Talk is cheap. Many people verbally commit to or claim to do things they never do.) or people who told you they did as you asked, but lied through their teeth, possibly adding useless mails to an already over crowded mailbox read by an overworked editor who doesn’t have enough slots for the books they want to publish and more so they have hundreds, if not thousands of well behaved, professional writers who don’t try to insult them to deal with. So why would they chose to deal with someone who possibly can’t take time to polish their book, definitely gets irrational at any little problem and makes poor, unprofessional decisions? They don’t have to, and they won’t chose you if you make their work harder.

And a final word, if you want to prove hat your work is marketable don’t harass one agent/editor/publisher. Prove they’re wrong by selling your book to someone else.