Here is the form letter I got from TCK Publishing today, which I was not expecting for a couple of reasons. I was hoping for a trickle of individual attention that would help narrow down the problems with my book, but there’s no evidence they read it beyond skimming the synopsis.
I didn’t get feedback, although in fairness they were true to their word of getting back to me in three weeks, just barely squeaking by under their deadline.
Here is the email they sent.
Hi,
Thank you so much for submitting your book to TCK Publishing for publishing consideration!
We appreciate your initiative and dedication!
I feel so awful to let you down but our editor has decided not to publish your book right now.
I’m sure we’ll be kicking ourselves later when it becomes a best seller.
Please feel free to bookmark this email and let us know when you do publish it and we would be more than happy to share your success story on social media.
Due to the volume of submissions, I can't provide specific feedback on your manuscript, but we have a detailed article explaining the most common reasons why we reject fiction for a publishing deal. I hope this helps!
You may also find our free guide to finding a publisher helpful as well as you pursue other opportunities to publish your book.
And here's one last thing that may might help—it's our detailed blog post on all the different ways you can publish a book including resources and guides to help you whether your heart is set on traditional publishing or not.
Good luck and we wish you all the best with your writing career and all your future endeavors!
To your success,
”Jim”
Anonymous Entry Level Publisher
This race has hardly begun, so it’s way too soon to consider giving up. I might be able to work smarter rather than harder.
The tone of the latest rejection letter is a tad irritating and a smidge smug so I’ll focus on the takeaways. But first—a few feelings….
If you are going to send a rejection form letter, it would be fine to simply say we aren’t accepting your book and here is why—but complaining about how overworked you are because authors send submissions is odd.
The “we have so many submissions” line is absurd. Isn’t your job to get a lot of submissions? Isn’t that the general idea when you have a “come one, come all” submission policy?
If you work in publishing, please add a comment to help me understand how I’m wrong about this.
I know, everyone’s a critic, right?
I’ll take them up on their offer to promote my book on social media, but I can’t help but wonder if their offer is another way of saying:
“Your book has a snowball’s chance in hell of ever selling.”
This May Be Helpful
I’ve read “Why We Reject Fiction” and it is helpful. I confess I haven’t fixed at least one of the defects in my book: my characters are great, except for one. Sadly, it’s the main character. He comes off as wooden, one-dimensional, cerebral without being clever or intellectual, and a bit … ghostly? Okay, maybe not that horrid, but he needs more of a heart.
I can’t fix him now, however.
I have to finish my second book first.
I also need to update Down and Out on the Road South to reflect certain major changes in society since I graduated high school in 1984, starting with:
(1) Masks are part of life, and it sucks
(2) School is much worse now.
(3) Black Lives, and Inuit Lives (some of my characters) matter, and this isn’t reflected in the book. I need to put more effort into relating to teens about the real differences people experience in society because of their race, country of origin, gender and LGBTQ status.
(4) It’s okay to have clever dialogue, even if most teens aren’t masters of wit—I learned this after reading a John Green book.
Character Defects
My focus is to complete my non-fiction book “Untold Omaha,” and yesterday I got a boost of self-confidence when I charted my chapters and got organized.
In the meantime, I will contemplate items 1-4, above.
After I finish reading 1619, long overdue, I’ll dive into the library and start reading more YA. I haven’t read nearly enough in the genre, and especially current novels, that’s for sure.
So maybe TCK is right, but I wish they wouldn’t say they give “individual feedback” and then send a letter that doesn’t even include the title of my book, or my name.
Since March 2019, Jean Campbell has fallen into a deep well of hilarity — leading to over 7K Medium followers and hundreds of humor articles.
She began writing Get Published, a Substack newsletter, to laser focus on finishing her true crime book, Untold Omaha: A Street Hustler’s Redemption Story. But wait, there’s more! For free humor writing on Substack, check out Flying Monkey Mind.
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