discover fire

I got my first rejection letter for my first novel that I submitted! I love it, and reprint it here for you all (obscuring the identification of the person who sent this to me):

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for sending me your novel. I don’t mind sex and violence at all, but thank you for warning me about it—it can be a shock.

You’re very funny, and there is a lot of imagination at work in these pages. This is very much a “dude” novel—it wouldn’t be appealing to women, given that the narrator is male and the writing is rough, comic, and in-your-face. And unfortunately, novels geared toward a male audience have real trouble finding their market. The sad truth is that the vast, vast majority of modern-fiction-buyers are female. So I’m not going to be able to make an offer on your novel. But I wish you the best of luck with it—the best thing about this business is that it’s subjective, so you never know who will disagree with me.

Take care, Jeremy!

-XXXXXX