Category Archives: Rejections

Winner And Rejection

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The winner for the April Book Giveaway is:
Diana Donnelly – Thayne, WY

Diana, I’ll be mailing your books out to you within the next week. Everybody else, I’ll be posting TWO book giveaways soon. One will be a stand-alone book with an author interview, and the other will be another box of books. Visit my blog often for updates for these giveaways!

Also, wanted to mention that I’ve gotten a couple of rejections over the last few months. I forgot to blog about these. Some have asked why I blog about rejections..why? It’s part of being a writer and I think it helps unpublished writers to see what the rejections say. I like to focus on both the negative and positive aspects of writing to give a realistic view of the industry. Here’s what my most recent rejection said:

Thank you for submitting the proposal for (title of my work). I’m sorry to say that this title is somewhat like some of our other titles. We’re going to release an “identical twin brother” story later this year. However, while that title isn’t necessarily a romance novel it’s a little too close and we don’t want our readers to think that we’re publishing the same story over and over.

Again, we’d like to see some new ideas and hope that Cecelia Dowdy can provide something more for the (XXXX) team to review.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rejection! :-( And A Nice Letter

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My editor at Barbour received the following email today about my novel collection, Chesapeake Weddings:

I am currently reading Cecelia Dowdy’s Chesapeake Weddings. This book is an inspiration and allows us to put ourselves into these situations while also keeping God as the main focus of the novels.


I also received a rejection today! Blah! I haven’t been under contract in almost two years and it’s starting to bother me, but, I’m not one to give up! Here’s what the rejection said:
Dear Cecelia,
Thank you so much for your patience as we read your project, Gabriel’s Pride. While the story has some interesting elements, I’m afraid this story doesn’t quite work for our line. Unfortunately, the romantic conflict between the hero and heroine is not as compelling as it needed to be.

We’re sorry to disappoint you on this project. We would be happy to look at any other projects you may be working on suited for our line. Thank you for thinking of us.
Best,
signed by the editor.

So, there, you have it! Another rejection! Whew! I’m tired of these!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

ACFW Conference 2010

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Patricia commented on my ACFW Blog Post. Her comments are bolded:

Planning on going next year?
Probably, depending on a number of factors. I’d love to go again, though. I think I get more out of ACFW than RWA because MOST of the Christian publishers attend ACFW. Only a few Christian publishers attend RWA. When I went to RWA last year, I believe the only Christian houses attending were Bethany House and Steeple Hill.

Maybe when you’re rested, you could give us just a little about the workshops you attended?

I didn’t attend all of the workshops I signed up for since I got tired a few times and needed to rest, or sometimes I’d bump into people and we’d sit and talk and skip the workshops. This information is kind of sketchy, so read at your own risk, and take the following words with a grain of salt!

For the Continuing Education session, I attended Jim Rubart’s and Chip Macgregor’s class on Marketing Your Fiction. Basically, you need to find something you’re good at…something marketing related, and do that to market your stuff. For example, if you can’t stand blogging, then don’t start a blog! Also, you need to shock editors, agents, people, about your work. Give them material that’s not the norm. When you write a thank-you note for your rejections, think of writing something with some spark that’ll make that editor remember you! I missed part of this workshop since I had appointments. If you really want to know about all that was said, it’d be best to buy the CD. Marketing is all about getting people to like you and help you promote your material, build a tribe and they’ll help you promote your stuff. That’s all I can recall off the top of my head.

I went to Terri Blackstock’s workshop on writing suspense. Very interesting. You need to raise the stakes in your suspense stories and not make them too predictable. She used the movie Ransom? to illustrate what she was trying to tell us. We were supposed to watch this movie before attending the workshop, but I didn’t take the time to do that, but still gleaned lots of great information from her teaching.

The mock acquisitions meeting that Thomas Nelson did was quite interesting. It was great to see a re-enactment of the dialog that editors have when trying to decide if they want to publish a book. People asked questions afterwards.

That’s a brief summary of what I can recall from the conference.

Was this your first ACFW conference? If so, any thoughts from the perspective of a first-timer?
Nope, it wasn’t my first conference! If memory serves me correctly, it was my third conference. If you’re a first timer, just go and enjoy, take good notes and make lots of connections with authors!

Oh, got another rejection today! I’m not typing the full rejection on this blog post as I promised I would. Why? It’s too lengthy and I’m tired of typing. But, she gave me great feedback and I’m going to re-submit this project since she suggested I do so.

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rejected!

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I just received this rejection yesterday from a large publishing house. I think, when I get a rejection from now on, I’m going to post what the rejection says on this blog. Why? So that other authors and aspiring authors can see the reasons for rejection. Also, for those who haven’t started submitting yet, they can see what a real rejection looks like. I’ve placed my comments in caps and brackets. Here’s what the letter said:

Dear Cecelia,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read [NAME OF MANUSCRIPT INSERTED HERE] I really enjoyed this project. Unfortunately, however, the general feeling was that the initial print numbers would be too small for our list. So, therefore, I have to pass.

It was a pleasure meeting you at the Faith and Fiction Retreat in Atlanta. I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for us but I wish you the very best in finding a good home for your work.

Best-
[EDITOR’S NAME HERE]

I’d submitted this manuscript on June 20 and I think this editor was nice to respond within three months. I’m glad she gave me a compliment. Although rejections stink, it makes me feel good when an editor for a large publishing house has something nice to say about my work.

I keep a spreadsheet with all of my submissions so that I can track them. I have more than one manuscript floating around out there now since I want to find a home for my books! After I receive the rejection, I keep it in a file and I remove the line from my spreadsheet since I’m no longer tracking that submission. I also try to keep track of where I’ve submitted a project so that I don’t make the major mistake of submitting a manuscript someplace twice!

Do you keep track of your submissions? What do you do to keep track of your manuscripts? If you have an agent, does your agent keep a similiar spreadsheet to track the status of your manuscripts?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rejected! :-(

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Hands down, this has got to be the quickest rejection I’ve ever received in my whole writing career! The project that I mentioned at the end of this blog post was submitted on September 11, 2010. I received the snail mail rejection in the mail today! Oh well, I’m not upset or anything like that. It was one of those, what I call, shots in the dark – I didn’t really think they’d take it, but it’s a completed manuscript, sitting on my shelf, collecting dust…

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Tenwek Hospital

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A good friend of ours, Ron Johnson, is out with a group of people in Kenya doing missionary work at Tenwek Hospital and the surrounding area. We receive daily emails from his group about their experiences and the emails bring both laughter and tears to our eyes as we read about babies dying and AIDs orphans who receive their first pair of shoes. If you feel led, keep this hospital and this ministry bathed in prayer.

My novel collection, Chesapeake Weddings, received a favorable review in The Examiner.

I’ll be heading to ACFW tomorrow morning. If you’re coming and you see me, stop and say hello, also let me know if you read my blog! I’ve often met my blog readers at conferences. I’ll try and report on what I see and hear at the conference, but, as in past years, I find I do a terrible job at reporting. By the time I get back to my room, I just feel like going to sleep! I usually end up staying awake much later than normal, socializing!

Also, I forgot to mention, about a week ago I submitted one of my old, rejected manuscripts to another publisher. This particular publisher markets their novels primarily to libraries and the pay isn’t much, but, the reject is just sitting there, gathering dust, so I might as well try and make a few dollars from my weeks worth of labor! 🙂 I’ll keep you posted about that!


~Cecelia Dowdy~

REJECTED! :-(

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I received a rejection yesterday for a Christmas anthology project that I submitted with three other authors. Bummer!

I know some of you may wonder why I always blog about getting rejected. Although this blog is about Christian Fiction, I also enjoy blogging about what it’s like to be a writer.

I’m blessed that I have a full-time job during this bad economy and that I don’t have to make a full-time living from my writing because I’m doing a rotten job of getting publishing contracts and if we had to live off of my salary, we’d be homeless.

My husband works full-time too, but if I were to try and make a living from writing full-time we’d have to lower our standard of living for me to fulfill my dream and we’d both be miserable! 🙁

I don’t think we’ll be submitting this elsewhere because I’ve noticed that most Christian publishers no longer publish anthologies like they used to. From what I’ve gathered, other than Christmas anthologies, most CBA anthologies are compiled via invitation-only from publisher to author? Although I could be wrong about this.

Anybody read any great Christian novella anthologies lately? If so, what were the titles and what were the books about?

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Double Rejection! :-(

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I received two emailed rejections yesterday about an hour apart for this project! I’m starting to feel like this book will never have a home! I still have it floating around someplace, so it is still being considered elsewhere. On one of the rejections, the editor stated that she wanted to talk to me because they weren’t interested in publishing Southern Comfort, but, they did want to see some more proposals and she wanted to talk to me about that. She wanted to set up a time so that she could call me. I plan on emailing her back soon. Also, I was very
bummed-out when I received this rejection since my proposal had gone to committee.

Changing the subject, I have jury duty today. I’m so NOT looking forward to that!

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Rejected! :-(

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I’ve been going fishing with this project off an on for about a couple of years now. Although the project was not completed initially, I searched for an agent, anyway. I completed it last November and I continued my agent search. I’ve also been able to submit to a few publishing houses (The publishers took agented submissions only, I was able to submit because I’d met the editors at a writers conference). Anyway, I received the rejection from one of the publishers today! Bummer! They said (I’m paraphrasing):
We haven’t had success in presenting stories that have a main character who is blind, so I don’t think we’ll be pursuing this.

But, there’s still hope! I do have it elsewhere, so I just need to wait and hear what they say about the project!

On a lighter note, I did manage to go to the Walmart in Laurel, Maryland and I saw my book on the shelf!


There were two copies! I “sold” both of them. One lady started browsing in the book section shortly before I took my pics. I told her about my book and she said she would purchase it for her sister! She also said she was an aspiring author and she wanted advice about how to seek publication. We talked books, authors, writers organizations, etc. for close to a half hour!
Another woman came into the book section and I boldly told her about my book, presenting it to her from the shelf. She said, “Did you really write this book?”
I said, “Yes!” I flipped to my bio page. “See, that’s my picture right there.”
She said, “That is you!” She asked me to sign the book and she said she would send it to her preacher sister in South Africa.

Am I kooky or what? I think the exhileration of having a book in stores and in Walmart is going to my head! If I have time and energy, I’ll continue to visit stores when possible and take pictures of my book on the shelf! Also, if you have time, and if you’re in Walmart, Barnes And Noble, Family Christian, Borders, or any other bookstore and happen to see my book shelved, I’d appreciate your taking a picture with your camera and e-mailing it to me so that I can share with other blog readers!

One of my Facebook friends took this pic at the Woodland Texas Walmart:

As I promised in an earlier post, I’ll be back to blogging about regular stuff soon. I recently finished Mom’s The Word by Marilynn Griffith, and I’m almost finished with Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman. I also have The Manual by Sherryle Kiser Jackson in my TBR pile, and I just received This Fine Life by Eva Marie Everson in the mail today (this book has a very appealing cover!).

~Cecelia Dowdy~