I was perusing a site the other day where you can list your KDPS promotion (i.e what days your book is free) and they actually had several different “free” promos. One was to submit up to three of your blog entries and if they liked one, they would showcase you in their, uh, blog collective, but it would also include your book (i.e. free advertising, everyone wins). I decided to pick out of few of my better (cleaner) blogs and post the links. I figured they’d either let me know which day it was running or I would forget I ever even filled out the form.
I’ll be damned if I didn’t receive an actual rejection letter (email) a day or two later!
If I’d known this was one of those old school “We believe you take us so seriously as to deserve a rejection from us upon not accepting your submission” kind of places, I would have skipped past the little freebie promo. Shoot, we have the big publishing houses and most mainstream magazines to harangue if we enjoy papering our room with rejection slips.
I mean not to be disrespectful but it makes me feel like every person with a web page has decided they can enter the REJECTION SLIP GAME.
Wow. My poor blog. He’s hurting right now. Dripping with shame. I think he may have hoof and mouth disease (that has something to do with dejection, right—you get too many rejections and it affects the gums?).
My blog is very distressed; he deserves a couple Xanax at least.
He may not post for at least another hour. Maybe even a day.
I know you’re dying to know what a blog rejection looks like (I mean those of you who haven’t already joined the blog submission game, which by the way I didn’t even know existed).
Here it is:
R.S.,
Thanks for the submissions. I looked through some more of your blog posts on your site. However at this time we will not be using any. Really looking for posts that are for readers without a slant toward writers. Thanks and have a great day.
I suppose on one hand I’m glad he mentioned looking through my site. And the slant comment is fair enough. But no rejection slip feels great and to be honest, I really didn’t care one way or the other so I guess I read the email response as kind of unnecessary. I mean I could respond back and say “thanks for the rejection, but I looked through the rest of your site and I’m kind of glad my blog’s not going to be on it.”
Oh for God’s sake I’m kidding. I applied, he gave me a perfectly good reason to reject my blog (though the comment about reading through the rest of my site and “we will not be using any” seemed excessively rejective—maybe what he meant to say was “I really liked your writing, witticisms, perspectives, and great layout, but we really are looking for a reader slant and I just didn’t find any of those on your otherwise kick-ass blog”. Yeah, I doubt it too.)
So that’s it. No big thing, I’d just never thought of a blog as rejection-worthy. But there you go. I guess in our new society everything has to either have a stamp of approval or one of rejection.
If it’s all right with you (few? disappointed? self-evaluating and sorry for still being here, associated with me?) readers, I’ll keep blogging. And I’ll keep slanting it toward writers because, well, it IS called “Rob On Writing”. And most of you who read are, um, writers.
Well, if you can all pardon the short blog, I’m off to come up with a really snazzy rejection button (like all those cool blogger award buttons).
Peace, love, acceptance, joy, and, well, sure…rejection, y’all.
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The blank page is dead…long live the blank page.
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Author known to use spontaneous satire, sarcasm, and unannounced injections of pith or witticisms which may not be suitable for humorless or otherwise jest-challenged individuals. (Witticisms not guaranteed to be witty, funny, comical, hilarious, clever, scintillating, whimsical, wise, endearing, keen, savvy, sagacious, penetrating, fanciful, or otherwise enjoyable. The Surgeon General has determined through laboratory testing that sarcasm can be dangerous, even in small amounts, and should not be ingested by those who are serious, somber, pensive, weighty, funereal, unsmiling, poker-faced, sober, or pregnant.)
Rob,
This reminds me of Woody Allen’s remark that he wouldn’t want to be a member of any organization that would accept him as a member.
You are so right. We seem to have reached a point where as soon as a person creates a website, he suddenly wields rejection power. What a crock.
Well, I’m a reader (OK, well, I edit, but that’s not like writing, is it?) and I read this blog. I may not always actually come here to do it – I get it via email – and I may not always comment, but I DO read most of the words in each blog post 😉
Well it’s your own fault really for writing so many “slanted” blog posts. Next time, try sitting up straighter when you type…
Steve: thanks for my LLOL of the day! (Literal LOL)
That’s all right. The world is filled with those who can’t write so they establish themselves as critics just so they have the power to cut down those who can. Jealousy and envy are miserable diseases to have and, unfortunately, they are contagious.
Amen. I think he was just being professional, but a rejection slip for a free blog entry? Meh.
I don’t know why someone would reject your blog out of hand just because it appeals to writers. Obviously, there a lot of them out there. Good ones. Bad ones. Tall ones. Short ones. Fat ones. Well, you get the idea. More importantly, every writer I know is an avid reader. Especially the good ones. How does anyone think they learned to write? They went to school to learn? Hell, that’s the last place I’d send an aspiring writer. I’d sit them down with a few good books first. Then, I’d give them something to write with. A blog is a good place, don’t you think?
Jack, that was my very first thought: every single writer I know is an voracious reader. Whaddaya gonna do? Thanks for the response, my friend.
Who even has the time to send out blog rejections???
Or blog about them? (See, I am not only funny but self-deprecating, too!) 😉
He probably thought it was nicer than leaving you hanging, but it’s still funny. Blog rejections, ha! Great post 🙂 Thanks for the laugh.
Yeah, I think he was just being professional. Made for some fun material, though. 😉
And here I thought the King was dead. TP and its endearing traditions live on.
Rejection from publishing houses
Rejection from blogs
Hey lets call it a hat trick and have a rejection from a commenter 🙂
Good times!
LOL! Sorry…Too funny! Any time you want to come and slant on my blog you’re welcome.
[…] recently read a blog post entitled, Now My BLOG has a Rejection Slip — Is NOTHING Sacred? In the post, Rob asks the following: I mean not to be disrespectful but it makes me feel like every […]
I think having them drop you a note to let you know that they are not using your stuff seems pretty professional. It did not even sound like a form rejection.
It was. The blog was meant to be humorous. 🙂
Oh my gosh! This gave me a good laugh. Had a some tough critiques this week and I needed a giggle. Blog rejection? Who does that? Good grief! Everybody has an opinion. =)
Then of course there is the old invisible rejection letter from a comment not approved…
“Dear Comment Leaver, while we appreciate the time it took you to leave your details, copy the password and think up something short, witty and just edgy enough to give a true sense of yourself without coming over bullish, arrogant or disrespectful of others’ sensibilities we regret to inform you…”
True enough. Another undeserved power of us filthy bloggers! 😉
I wrote my own rejection letter once. In the late 80’s I worked in the literary department at ICM in LA. My boss told me to write a standard (but kind) rejection letter which we used for years. In the late 90’s after writing my first screenplay – I sent it to said aforementioned boss and about 10 days later – I received my rejection letter I had written all those years before. I swear to God…
That is the best rejection story I’ve ever heard. Sorry we weren’t running some kind of “best rejection story” contest because you’d have taken the grand prize. PRICELESS.
Oy!
Let me make you feel better- I got a comment on my blog once that said “What even is the point of this blog?”
Doh! What’s the point of any blog really? It’s an outlet for my musings that don’t fit anywhere else in my writings.
That said, I deleted the comment and Icontinue to blog at will. Thas the beauty of the interwebs. I post what I want, and personally, I LOVE YOUR BLOG, as both a reader AND a writer!!
Thanks, Angie! BLOG ON! 🙂