a consideration

I was browsing in Bookshop Santa Cruz today, looking at Frank McCourt's new book, Teacher Man. Several years ago, I literally ran into Mr. McCourt as he was walking out of Palace Arts and Office Supply; I guess his daughter lived in Santa Cruz for awhile, and I saw him a few times here. I'm glad I didn't injure the poor fellow; I was walking fairly close to the door and McCourt came out and nearly walloped me with the door. He was very gracious about it. Anyway, the point is (there is a point to this) that Frank McCourt published Angela's Ashes when he was sixty-six years old. He had no idea it would be the bestseller it became--in fact, when it went to his agent (someone gave it to her) it was printed on horrible onionskin erasable paper. When his agent got to shopping Angela's Ashes around, publishers kept saying it was "just another soggy Irishman's sob story," but she persisted in getting folks to read it. Just shows to go ya.

A couple more tidbits from the Wide World O'Rejection: John Grisham had thirty agents turn down his first book A Time to Kill. The agents who rejected him have all been demoted to mailroom clerks (just kidding). Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected by thirty-three New York publishers (maybe this was a good thing--but, hey, the books sell, and I even admit that I have a couple of them, though they were given to me by well-meaning friends and family). And yes, I have even read them.

If you click on the link for today, it will take you to a site called "rejection collection." Folks post their rejection slips and reactions to them here. It's nice to know we are not alone, and not in an X-files way. I would recommend looking in the "celebrity corner" category of that site and reading Arthur Golden's story of trying to get Memoirs of a Geisha published. The poor man was told this book (one of my personal favorites) was "too dry"--and he even got audited by the IRS! Talk about tenacious; I'm glad Lady Fortune decided to smile on him.

Yes, I do care about rejection--I wanted to amend what I said in my last post. They do bum me out, depending on my mood when I get them. Reading about rejections, famous and not-so-famous (infamous) often fills me with admiration of how folks just keep going in the face of all the odds. As for the tedious writer I mentioned (that I dated years ago), he was beyond the need to vent, or look for support, or whatever we need to do to endure the waiting process. This guy even signed a Christmas card with, "I am thirty-five years old and still have not published a novel. Merry Christmas." The reasons I dated him were silly and I spent three years after him voluntarily without a relationship at all, trying to figure out why on earth I wanted to devote fifteen minutes' worth of time to him, much less a year and a half. He then went on to date an agent--but I'd be better off today working on my book than plodding backwards down Memory Lane.