As promised in my previous post, I’ve finally set up a blog post specifically so I can record aaalllll my many rejections for you guys. I’m hoping that by being completely honest about this process I can a) show you what the life of a writer is really like and b) use this post as a kind of catharsis.

Whenever I get rejected from a job or an agent I’m going to post it here. While I won’t post any personal information such as names or email addresses, I’ve decided I will let you know the kinds of jobs I’ve been rejected for. I’m still undecided about whether to post company names or not – I don’t want to ‘out’ any companies, as there’ll be a perfectly good reason why I wasn’t chosen for whatever position I applied/interviewed for, but equally, I thought it might be useful so you guys can see how competitive some industries can be. While I’m still mulling this over, I’ll just write the industry for now, but may change this future.

I’ll also update with any other random things I’ve been rejected for, which I think might be useful for you, such as any writing competitions or funding applications.

So let’s get down to it!

Agents

Synthetica rejection #1

Synthetica rejection #2

Synthetica rejection #3

Synthetica rejection #4

Synthetica rejection #5*

*just wanted to say I really appreciated this last response – thought it was really insightful, polite, and they got back to me really quickly, considering we were all about to enter our first lockdown.

Jobs

• Online Manager – independent (but big name) publisher – standard of interviewees was exceptionally high,’  could ‘only take forward a very few candidates to the second round of interviews’
• Marketing Operations – agricultural firm – said I interviewed exceptionally well and didn’t give any reason for rejecting me beyond they decided to hire the guy’s mate instead *cough* nepotism *cough*
• Marketing and Communications Officer – door manufacturer – no idea, they never got back to me. Rude.
• Editor – small independent publisher – didn’t get an interview for this one, which wasn’t surprising given it was an editorial role but hey, you never know unless you try!
• UPDATE 19/12/22 – Professional Development Coordinator – local university – hmm so, this one has taken a while. After interviewing mid-November, the hiring manager finally got back to me a week after my interview to say that although there was nothing wrong with my interview, the other candidate just had 10 years more experience than me, so they’d offered them the role BUT the other candidate hadn’t accepted yet and I was second in line. I waited another week or so then followed up again, to which there was no response until ANOTHER week later, when they told me the other candidate had accepted that morning. Hey ho – at least my interview technique is apparently sound??
• UPDATE 13/03/23 – Graphic Novel Editor – independent publisher – slightly disappointed by this one, as you apparently didn’t need a load of in-house publishing experience to apply, just a passion for graphic novels and editorial experience. Part of me can’t help wondering if it’s also because I selected remote working as a preference – the job application gave you a choice of remote/hybrid/in office, but I know a lot of other publishing jobs still want you to work in the office. Most likely, I was just up against people with loads of experience – I’ll never know!

Other

• Arts Council ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ funding round 13 – other projects preferred
  UPDATE 27/03/23 – got rejected for DYCP funding again. Slightly more feedback this time, which I’ll definitely use to strengthen my applications in the future
• Arts Council ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ funding round 16 – other projects preferred. Panel noted that:

  – your application may have been strengthened with more information about your creative practice.
  – your application may have been strengthened with more information about how the development opportunity will help create future opportunities for you.

I hope you find this list, if not useful, then at the very least comforting. Look, we all get rejected sometimes, it’s just the way life goes – what matters is how we deal with it. Personally, I’m gonna make myself a cup of tea, keep writing, keep applying for jobs/agents/funding and enjoy the ride while I can. Or, y’know, enjoy it ’til my existential anxiety kicks back in at least 😉

Let me know about your own rejection experiences in the comments!

Z xx