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You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. - Dr. Samuel Johnson
So, now we have the comforting quote out of the way, could I ask who rejected you? Was it a literary agent, or a critic for whichever publication to which you were submitting? I suspect the former. I know my own agent cited a number of such examples when I first sent my work to them ('Have you read Birdsong?' and 'So it's like Regeneration, then?' being favourite phrases). Several months - and numerous conversations - later, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that agents work on some basic motor level when judging work, and so require some frame of reference in order to determine a work's marketability. Whilst we may detest pigeon-holing - and loathe a comparison of our work to other (usually irritatingly successful) authors - it seems that that does actually bring (at least initial) results. A friend of mine, who publishes under the name Tom Arden, was consistently rejected until he wrote a conventional fantasy novel, and pitched it by comparing the work to established authors in the genre.
I really would be interested to read some of your work at some point, SFD. Do you have anything available for public scrutiny? |
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