Is this more positive than standard rejection letter?

[buffythebarbieslayer]

Just received this rejection but I'm wondering if it is a bit more positive than a standard rejection.

Thanks for sharing this with me. I'm afraid that, whilst there is much I admire about your work, it doesn't feel the right fit for me. I'd certainly recommend you continue to explore other options, and wish you all the very best with your writing from here.

Sounds to me like she did like my writing or am I clutching at straws and this is also a standard rejection?

This is the standard isn't it?

Oh okay.

I've had other rejections. None said anything about admiring my work. I didn't think they'd say that if they thought your work was rubbish.

Oh well, feel silly now

it's not very well written...

Aw I don't think they would say that just to be nice! I would take it as a positive thing.

I think they are just trying to let you down gently - sorry. It's still a rejection :(

I'm not all that distraught about the rejection. Expect it at this stage, first novel etc.

I 'm just surprised they'd have a blanket response of 'I admire much about your work' when so much of it will be awful. Though I suppose that could include mine!

I think I've seen that response before, unfortunately - I'm sure someone posted it on a writers forum I'm on. The "while there is much I admire about your work" seems very familiar.

I think it probably is a standard, but they may have more than one standard rejection, if that makes sense - possibly one for "you can write but we're not interested" and one for "bog off and never darken our door again, you illiterate ignoramus."

I had one standard rejection and two personal ones before I was taken on by my agent - the standard was just a nice "no thanks, not for us", and the personal ones made specific references to things within my manuscript, so I knew they were genuine responses.

Hi Barbie

I used to work in publishing and we would send out these awful photocopied rejection slips with a deliberately squiggly and unreadable signature! A touch of the personal is definitely a step up as is encouraging you to go on. You must remember that there are 101 reasons to reject a book - they may have a similar writer, a similar theme.

It might be worth getting some professional feedback if you keep getting letters like this (A good one with professional links like The Literary Consultancy) but I would def keep aiming your book at lit agents. If you can mention a book or author of theirs you liked - that is good too. If they have a writer whose style is similar to yours, probably best not bother.

Good luck. This famous author was told this when he sent his first ms in:

'an absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.'

It was Lord of the Flies.

And this publisher had egg all over his face when he declared this memoir:

'The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level.'

Spot the red face when The Diary of Anne Frank went on to sell 30 million copies worldwide!