Rejection Letters

This is a bit of fun. Dedicated to anyone who has every been told that they can't do anything.

Did you know that Johnathan Livingstone Seagull was rejected for publication 98 times?

I hope this will be a source of encouragement.

Here are some reasons - each one from a different publishing company -
that explain why 'Battersea Park Road to Enlightement' wouldn't sell.

The book has so far sold over 70,000 copies in the UK and been translated into 13 languages..

So if you write or have anything that you'd like to do and you really believe in it - but you have rejection letters - I hope you enjoy reading these...

 

We liked this very much but we don't feel that this book is right for us. It doesn't fit with our list. We are too mainline for you.

There was some worry here about your book covering so many different subject areas. We felt this was wrong.
I think this is fabulous material but that it's more of a novel than something we could sell as non-fiction.

We didn't have the necessary degree of enthusiasm for your book.

It is amusing and interesting but we felt it was too personal an approach.

As most of our list is bought by an older readership we felt that this 'fun' approach would be hard to sell.

The book is neither proscriptive enough, or satirical enough. We also think that it is too autobiographical and personal.

I found your book witty, engaging, colourful and funny. Unfortunately we have found it difficult to publish first-person narrative accounts and we suggest that you approach X.

I really love this. Isabel sounds terrific and the book is great fun and I think could be very successful. However I felt that she should inject more factual information into the book and, much as we would love to do it, we don't think that we are the right publishers for it... we feel that we should be concentrating on areas where we already have a strong presence.

We felt that this approach was too journalistic... it does not carry enough clout at book length. Not quite funny or witty enough on the one hand, not too many hidden depths on the other.

I found the material hugely entertaining and more than a little enlightening.. but this was not a book that fits naturally on our list. We felt that such a personal approach could be difficult to sell without a high-profile or 'name' author.

We loved the appropriate melange of humour, skepticism and faith. Losada has a bouncy, resilient, open voice which makes her the ideal commentator.. however it would prove impossible to categorise and market in the trade as a result.

We felt that what you are doing is incredibly brave in it's honesty and humorous in approach... however we felt that your book would perhaps work better on the list of a more straightforwardly commercial publisher.

Your writing has pace, clarity and lightness bringing to the book an overall accessibility even when complex things are being described. Your powers of observation both outward looking and inward looking are remarkable.. however - I have doubts that there are enough people nationwide who will want to part with £7 to read a book of this kind. It would be easier to sell if Isabel Losada had her own prime time TV show.

Go to the Home page of www.isabellosada.com