If You Are Tired of Getting Rejection...

You need to change up your game plan. On one hand, you are to be applauded for getting your material out to the editor or agent for consideration. Some writers never even take that active step. Every published writer has had plenty of rejection, it comes with our profession. The basic task of every writer is to get their writing to the right editor for the right publication at the right place and the right time.

There are many reasons for rejection and some of those reasons have to do with the writer and some of them have to do with timing.

A key step to changing your game plan is to get some more information or training. This training can come from a writers conference or instruction from others online like my Write A Book Proposal course or from how-to books.

In Philadelphia, Conference Director Marlene Bagnull was talking about the merits of Mike Nappa's book, 77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected, and how to be sure it won't happen again! Marlene wrote an endorsement for this book that calls it “a must-read book for writers who want to get their book in print. Now only will you learn why your manuscript has been rejected, you'll learn how to fix it.”

It was toward the end of the second day of a panel of book editors and Marlene was speaking about Mike's book. I encouraged her to read Reason No 1. Flipping to the page she read, “Your Writing Is Crap.” It was not what you usually hear at a Christian writers conference.

According to industry insiders, there are a million proposals, queries and book manuscripts in circulation in different literary agencies and publishing houses. If you have submitted anything to an editor, you normally receive a form rejection letter saying it didn't meet their editorial needs. The form letter gives no insight for why you were rejected.

Mike Nappa pulls back the curtain and helps writers understand why their precious book pitch was rejected. He is straightforward and frank with his advice which is generously on every page of this well-written book.

For example, Reason #14 is one most writers don't want to learn: "You are lazy." Nappa concludes this section saying, "If you want to get published, you've got to be willing to do the work it takes to optimize every opportunity. If you don't want to do the work, all of the writers conferences and workshops in the world will not do you any good. Remember there is no such thing as a lazy writer...only those who get published and those who don't." (Page 69)

The 77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected are divided into three main sections: Editorial Reasons for Rejection, Marketing Reasons for Rejection and Sales Reasons for Rejection. With Nappa's years of experience as an editor and agent, he has poured terrific value into this book. No writer likes to be rejected but every writer can profit from a detailed study of this book. I highly recommend it.