Verified reject

I'll be in DC/New England this weekend and next week, touring for forest born, and I'll be chatting with the Book Divas for a couple of weeks.

I finally got my scanner working this week, and I thought you might enjoy a couple of items. First, some fan art. This lovely picture, made by teen squeetuser Camille, references the film noir Humpty Dumpty story Fablehaven author Brandon Mull told on squeetus in February. (click to enlarge)

Isn't that fabulous? Next, some of you know that my first book, the goose girl, was rejected (unread) by dozens of agents, then after I found an agent (the Amy mentioned in the letter), it was again rejected nine times by the who's who of children's publishers. Cropping out the publishers' names, here are two of the rejection letters. I'm sure many of you can empathize. Oh, the days when you looked for the positive in a rejection--at least they bothered to send a letter! At least they seemed to read it at all! At least they said something sort of nice! (Oh, the pain, the pain!)

A note on the goose girl--it went on to win the Josette Frank Award (awarded by book professionals) as well as the ALA Teen Top Ten (voted on by teen readers in the US). It's been in print for six years and continues to find an audience, besides spawning three sequels. It wasn't the right book for these editors, but it was the right book for another editor (eventually--I love you, Victoria!) as well as hundreds of thousands of readers. What I'm saying is, all you writers, stick with it! I wouldn't recommended sending out your first draft, or even your first book, but once you get that really great final draft done, the rejection that follows doesn't mean you or the book is good for nothing. It's just part of the path in finding your right home.