Got my first real good rejection letter today. I’ve gotten a good handful regarding the query letter, and a couple from people whose guidelines requested both a letter and the first 3-10 pages of the book. Today I got the first rejection of the manuscript from someone who asked to see it based on the query.

It stings a bit, because it’s hard to take it personally when someone rejects a query letter. That’s four paragraphs that provide a mere summary of your work, and the reasons for rejection can be as simple as the agency not wanting new clients, or not specializing in your particular genre. A rejection of requested material, though, means that the reader looked at the description of the book offered in the query letter and thought <i>yes, this sounds right up my alley</i>, and then read the book and didn’t like it as much as he or she expected to.

And it’s important in these times to remember that it’s just one person not quite liking it, and that doesn’t mean anything in and of itself. It’s a rejection; I reject a dozen books a month from the library or the bookstore. I reject Annie Proulx but Kat thinks she’s brilliant; if <i>fortress of solitude</i> passed onto Kat’s imaginary agent’s desk, she’d have sent a polite form rejection, while I thought it was the best thing I’ve read in months… These things <i>are</i> arbitrary, and it’s not a declaration of my suckiness because someone who liked the idea of the book thought it was boring.

But it stings, because rejection always stings. As these things go, I could probably do a lot worse for myself, though.