Musing on Rejection After Acceptance

Don't be fooled. Just because one nice publisher recognizes the merit of your project and chooses to publish it, doesn't mean others will feel the same.  It's easy to be lulled into a false sense of optimism, but it is not recommended. I can only imagine how devastating it must be to get bad reviews. It certainly isn't very nice when the accepted manuscript continues to get rejected elsewhere. But such is life. Here's the latest:

Dear WR: Thank you for submitting [Title of Novel] for the 2014 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, founded by Barbara Kingsolver. After a careful review of more than 150 qualifying manuscripts, we have selected this year's 10 finalists. We have now moved on to the next phase of judging.

We are sorry that your novel was not among the finalists. With this letter, we release you from any further obligation to this year's competition, you should feel free to submit the manuscript elsewhere. If you plan to revise your novel significantly, we invite you to resubmit it for a future prize cycle.

Thank you again for your interest in this prize and best wishes for your work in the future.

Best regards,
Arielle Anema
Literary Awards Associate
PEN American Center
Awards@pen.org

I hadn't really felt under any obligation to not submit my manuscript elsewhere (obv.). But I have been released  from it nonetheless.