On a Letter of Rejection

I received this weekend the nicest rejection letter from the UK.

At Shore Leave, I told several people that I took a chance on submitting an outline to a UK publisher for an original novel based on Merlin, the BBC series currently showing on NBC here. Yes, it was unsolicited. Yes, I wasn’t sure what their publishing plans were. But I liked the series, I had a really good idea, and it was worth the shot.

To quote the entire letter:

Thank you for sending your work in to us at Random House. I’m afraid that, as far as I’m aware, there are no plans to launch any original Merlin books to accompany the series.

Nonetheless, your manuscript displayed an impressive craft for storytelling and created a richly imaginative Arthurian realm.

I knew they were doing a series of novelizations, like an adaptation of The Dragon’s Call, the series’ pilot episode. Original novels? That I didn’t know. Sometimes, you just have to take the chance.

So what am I going to do with the outline? I know all the changes I would make, save one, to turn this into an original Arthurian fantasy. I’m not exactly sure how to replace the talking dragon, but I’ll come up with something.

They use really nice paper in the UK, by the way.

This rejection actually feels good. And to quote a friend, onward and upward. :cheers:

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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