Skip to main content

Raman on Rejection.

And speaking of Silverfish, the Bloke in Bangsar has quite a few words to say about rejection, which I think can be summed up as "deal with it". Of course, some might say that the rejection itself isn't the big deal here, but how the Bloke rejects people that's particularly irksome.

Anyhow, I found this part particularly interesting:
Another writer came into the store a few weeks ago and wondered why I was being flamed in one of the blogs - accused of not helping young writers. She mentioned a name. That rang a bell immediately. 'Is this the person,' I said, pulling out a 400-plus page POD volume which I had received from him some time back. Of course, it was.
Hmm. More on rejection in the comments of this post.

Comments

  1. Hmmm. "Deal with it." I stll maintain it's HOW you reject someone. You have the power to shatter someone's dreams overnight, like a Dr telling a patient he has cancer. Even the Dr tells the patient gently and carefully, or he would be deemed unprofessional.

    Imagine the Dr telling the patient, "You have cancer, you have 2 months to live. Now deal with it."

    But I dunno. I'm no big time publisher. Maybe when you are a big time publisher, you have no time for the niceties and just want to get on with the job.

    But it's important to tell the person HOW to improve.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Xeus.

    It's one thing to tell a patient, "I can guarantee you are going to die. Give up all hope."

    It's another thing to say, "I'm sorry, you shouldn't get your hopes up, but we will continue to try our best."

    I've had my fair share of rejections. Several dozen ones, in fact. But never had any that you might consider rude or insensitive. All have been very constructive and polite.

    So, to be fair, most folks in the publishing industry do have tact. =)

    I dare say, I have learned more from rejections than I have from acceptances.

    It's all in the context.

    ReplyDelete
  3. haha. only just seen this! well spotted ted

    the post speaks volumes about tact and support, dunnit?

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's very bizarre. I keep wondering whose blog he's referring to...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover...

REVIEW: Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami.

UPDATE: My Wind/Pinball review can be found here . ISBN: n/a Publisher: n/a Paperback: 160 pages In Murakami fan circles, simply owning a copy of Pinball, 1973 is a mark of hardcore-ness. Like Hear the Wind Sing before it, Haruki Murakami does not allow English translations of Pinball, 1973 to be published outside of Japan. Back in the 80s, Alfred Birnbaum translated it into English and Kodansha published it as a novel for Japanese students who wanted to improve their English. While the English edition of Hear the Wind Sing continues to be reprinted and sold in Japan (and available for a moderate sum via eBay, see my review ), Kodansha stopped its reprint runs of the English edition of Pinball, 1973 and has now become a collector's item, fetching vast amounts of money on auction sites and reseller stores. Last time I checked, the cheapest copy went for USD$2500. Of course, Murakami addicts or the curious can always download a less than legal PDF of the book, painst...