Random Rejection: Innovation

Here’s another example of a form rejection letter that manages to convey a little more information than just “go away”. While obviously not nearly as valuable as one that contains actual feedback, I was still happy to get this sort of rejection, because at least I felt that someone had taken the time to read what I sent them.

Unfortunately, with no date and no title, I have no idea what was being rejected.  I also can’t tell anything by the selected rejection reason (“too long to wade through in its entirety”), because I’ve written a number of very long pieces over the years.  Given that bullet list at the bottom (“Comics”) and the large number of artwork-related rejection options, though, I would hazard a guess that this dates back to the very early 90s, when I was still trying to break into the field of comic books — and that means the rejection was probably for the original, comic-book version of either Night Watchman or Dragon Stones (which was called “Tales from the Dragon” when it was a comic book).

I should point out that I didn’t do my own artwork, because I can’t draw all that well.  Instead, I was working with an artist who was a clerk at the comic book shop in the mall.  This artist was very talented; he did amazing work on the books that we were developing.  Unfortunately, he lacked self-confidence and feared rejection, which led him to be slow to produce panels, which ultimately cost us slots for both Night Watchman and Dragon Stones at the late, lamented Eclipse Comics.

I eventually abandoned the comic book field anyway in favor of writing novels, but the lesson to take away is that fear of rejection is not your friend.  If you submit your work, you’re going to be rejected, probably a lot, but don’t let that discourage you.  And if your collaborator is paralyzed by fear of rejection, get a new one; the comic book series you save may be your own.