I got my first rejection letter from a publishing company today. It may seem sad, but I find it refreshing; it means someone spent time reading my story. My (alternate) goal in sending it off was to get a really nice rejection letter. Goal accomplished! Here is what it said:
Dear Diana,
I wish I had better news, but we’ve decided not to publish Avia. Your manuscript was full of beautiful themes of acceptance and self-worth which were brought to life through likable characters. While there were many strengths to your book, the New Product Selection Committee is wary of accepting young adult fiction, particularly in the science fiction and fantasy genres; we have had an extremely difficult time marketing and selling sci-fi/fantasy to the LDS market. Our owner, Deseret Book, has tried very hard with that genre through its subsidiary, Shadow Mountain, but has met with limited success even in the national market. The few pieces we’ve tried have done very poorly in the market, even though they were well written and had exciting plots.
I’m so sorry. I wish things could have turned out differently on this manuscript. I hope you will continue to write, and if you decide to try a different genre for an adult market, I hope you’ll consider submitting it to Covenant for our consideration.
Sincerely,
A—— W——
Editorial Assistant
Covenant Communications
I think this is a really encouraging letter! The editor took the time to write a personal letter and sounded like he/she personally liked your book. I wonder if you have thought about self-publishing? A couple of years ago I thought this was an option for hacks and I rolled my eyes whenever anyone suggested it, but with the advent of Kindle and devices like it, things have changed a lot in the publishing world. A lot of authors are finding success through the electronic market and some are then being picked up by paper publishers. I’m still working on completing my own story, but I plan on taking this route when it’s ready for publishing. This article has a lot of details, if you are interested: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/06/digital-publishing-genre-fiction/