Failure is the new funny at 'Literary Rejections'

A colleague recently forwarded me a link to Literary Rejections on Display, a Web site that chronicles hundreds of dismissals received by fiction and non-fiction writers. The site’s latest posting amusingly dissects a verbose rejection letter from Orchid: A Literary Review that includes a quote from composer Camille Saint-Saens: "I write music the way an apple tree produces apples." To which Literary Rejections responds, "No offense, but I write novels the way five elephants giving birth consecutively over ten years produce other elephants, or Café Lattes for that matter, so don’t give me this ‘involuntary urge’ business or ‘natural fruit on the tree’ stuff." Another particularly funny post chronicles a Random House editor’s rejection letter that repeatedly reminds the aspiring author how much he enjoyed the novel, and then lists numerous reasons he had to reject it.

Anyhow, whether you’re a writer who’s looking for a better way to deal with cruel dismissal than crying into a cup of herbal tea, or you’re simply a bookworm who wants to better understand the indignities your future favorite authors are suffering on their way to their seven-figure book deals, Literary Rejections on Display is worth checking out.