"An Editor's Job Is to Reject You"

Published: Mon, 03/25/24

Hello, writer,

Thank you for opening this message and giving me some of your time. If you like what you see, share this email with a friend!

Y'all enjoyed it last week when I included some music to listen to while you read, so this time around, take a look at Winter: 2024, a new demo from Late to Church, a Memphis trio that includes my cousin Noah Campbell, the one sitting to the right on the album cover, and lending his voice to "Poor Wayfaring Stranger."

The album is just about the perfect length for this brief email, which includes:

Exciting (for her) and sad (for us) news from Adriana Cloud
A brief note on rejection
Promotion: Your Submission Materials
Why read books?
My 10 Favorite Novels Since 2014, vol. 2
Yak Babies roundup
What am I reading? Am I writing?

Let's get to it!

So Long, Adriana

After twenty years of editing, Adriana Cloud has decided to pursue another career: helping people who want to drink less. If you're interested in learning more about Adriana's work as a sobriety coach, follow her on Instagram.

Since 2017, Adriana has been editing and proofreading the living hell out of your writing for WriteByNight. It's because of Adriana that the term "vocative comma" doesn't elicit from me the Homer Simpson stare.

We will miss her terribly, but we're excited for her new venture.

Best wishes, Adriana!

On Rejection

During a phone call with my writing friend D., whose agent is having a hard time selling his sophomore (ugh) novel to a publisher, D. said, "An editor's job is to reject you."

It's so true. In other words, editors have so many manuscripts cross their desk that their main responsibility is to clear them out, and as quickly as possible. Find the flaw, wave goodbye.

The same probably holds true for agents, to some degree.

It's something to keep in mind when you're querying, or when your agent is querying for you. The rejections you're piling up? That's just editors (and agents) doing their job.

So the question becomes: How can you prevent that editor from doing his or her job?

D. was paraphrasing a writer, whose name suddenly escapes me. The rest of the quote?

"So you need to write a book so good that they can’t reject you."

Promotion: Your Submission Package

While we're on the topic of agents and publishers, I want to let you know that through the end of April we're running a special: Receive two rounds of assistance with your agent/publisher submission materials for only $350.

First, you and I will chat about your project and goals. I'll work with you to polish up your query letter and (if relevant) your synopsis, and then together we'll find the WriteByNight coach who best suits your needs and aesthetic.

That coach will read your new-and-improved query and synopsis, along with the first 10 double-spaced pages of your book -- i.e., the materials most agents ask for initially -- and then he/she will meet with you for 60 minutes to offer feedback and answer questions.

You should come away from that discussion with a fresh understanding of your agent/publisher package and how to improve it.

They say that any given writer has a 1-in-6,000 chance of landing any given agent he/she queries. The best way to cut into those ghastly odds? Make sure your materials are in the best shape they can be.

If you're almost ready to send your work to agents and presses but need one last look, click the button below to get started.

I'm Ready for Feedback on My Submission Materials!

Why Read?

Over on the WriteByNight blog, we're talking about reading: In a world where almost every brand of entertainment is just a click away, why do you still read books?

Head on over to our blog post to discuss in the comments.

And speaking of reading...

My 10 Favorite Novels Since 2014, vol. 2

In case you missed last week's email: Over the next few months in this space I'll run down my 10 favorite novels published from 2014 to 2024.

Only one rule: No WriteByNight staff or clients, and no friends.

Last week's entries:

11. Growing Up Dead in Texas, Stephen Graham Jones; The Yellow House, Sarah Broom (call them honorable mentions, because they fall outside the parameters)

10. Women Talking, Miriam Toews

This week's picks:

9. The Warehouse, Rob Hart

This book is quietly/subtly horrifying as we follow a couple of workers in a massive complex that includes a gigantic and dehumanizing Amazon-style warehouse, a shopping mall, and apartment complexes -- because all employees live onsite, and their every move (and purchase) is tracked, and viewed. Meanwhile, outside, very little of society seems to remain, at least in the vicinity. It's an all-too-believable glimpse into the future of the corporatocracy we already live in.

8. Fever Dream, Samantha Schweblin

This is one of the creepiest books I've ever read. More than five years later, I'm still unsettled by it. *Do not* take any major hallucinogenics before you read it. But then when you're done, take some major hallucinogenics and read it again. Argentina; Monsanto; worms. (Like worms, all over.)

7. Ohio/The Deluge, Stephen Markley

Sorry, I couldn't choose one. Ohio is a brick. The Deluge is a brickier brick. They're both engrossing. In Ohio, four former classmates return for the funeral of a KIA soldier in their small hometown, which is being torn apart by drugs and alcohol and economic decline. Secrets come to light and lead to a gut-punch of a climax. Stephen King calls it "The Grapes of Wrath of the opioid crisis." The Deluge is a climate change novel that, like The Warehouse, shows the future we're hurtling toward. It's like a roller coaster you're not enjoying and can't escape and is being driven straight into hell. (But in a... good way, I guess?)

After all the nightmarish stuff in nos. 7 through 10, next week we'll get a (brief) respite. I swear, until I put this list together I did not realize so many of the books I love are so dark.

Are you a fellow fan of any of these books? Let me know, and let's gush over them together.

Yak Babies: Hugos & Farts

Free: In "Aversions When Writing," Aaron asks the boys if we stay away from any topics when we write fiction.

Paid: Patrons can listen to our second discussions about bidets. Just $1 a month to become a member!

Click to listen

What Am I Reading? Am I Writing?

I finished the rest of Kirstin Chen's Counterfeit in one excellent sitting. It's a very fun book; go and get it.

I don't know what's next. I might get back to Marlena; I've also got Darkness at Noon, which is often considered a top-10 novel of the 20th century, though I know nothing about it.

For now, I'll catch up on my New York Review of Books and Bookforum and One Story, all of which have been piling up.

I've not written.

What are you writing? What are you reading?