Kind Of A Big Book Deal

Episode 21 - When Rejections Matter—and When They Don't

• Meghan Stevenson

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What if the rejection you got from a publisher wasn’t really about you at all? In this episode of Kind of a Big Book Deal, host Meghan Stevenson pulls back the curtain on the truth behind publishing rejections and what they actually mean for your book journey.

Meghan shares her unforgettable story about passing on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and uses it to highlight an important lesson: rejection is rarely personal. Listeners will learn the difference between rejections that deserve attention, like feedback about platform size, crowded categories, or consistent editor comments, and those you can safely ignore, such as generic brush-offs or requests for unnecessary credentials.

This episode offers clarity and encouragement for aspiring authors who feel defeated by “no.” By breaking down real industry language, Megan equips entrepreneurs to know when to adapt, when to pivot, and when to move forward with confidence. If you’ve ever questioned whether rejection meant the end of your book dream, this conversation will give you the insight and resilience to keep going.

Episode Highlights:
(0:00) Intro
(1:08) The story of rejecting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
(2:16) How junior editors learn through submissions
(3:23) When rejections actually matter for authors
(4:27) Why platform matters more than just a good idea
(6:05) What “soft category” rejections really mean
(6:59) Handling consistent rejection feedback from publishers
(7:04) Rejections you can safely ignore
(8:10) “I couldn’t get support in-house” explained
(8:34) Requests for extra credentials—what they mean
(9:47) Final recap: when to listen, when to let go
(10:59) Outro


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Have a great idea for a book but don't know where to start?MeghanStevenson.com/quiz


Traditional publishing expert Meghan Stevenson blasts open the gates of the “Big 5” – Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Macmillan – to share what every entrepreneur and expert needs to know about landing a book deal.

In episodes released every other Monday, Meghan shares wisdom and stories from 20+ years in publishing as well as interviews with authors, literary agents, and editors. She also answers questions from listeners like you.

Whether you are an experienced entrepreneur with an empire, or are just starting out – this podcast will help you understand what you need to do in order to turn your dream of being a bestselling author into real life.

Speaker 00:

Love the author, love the writing, but this category is soft or difficult to break out. This one's a little harder to overcome because there's truth in this response. You could, in theory, vade out the trend, but that can take a long time to pass. Welcome to the kind of a big book deal podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn about traditional publishing. I'm your host, Meghan Stevenson. After working as an editor for two of the biggest traditional publishers, I started my own business helping entrepreneurs become authors. To date, my clients have earned over $5 million from publishers like Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, and Harper Collins. In these podcast episodes, I blast open the well-kept gates to traditional publishing. I'll explain what every entrepreneur needs to know about landing a book deal without losing your mind. I'm going to share stories, answer your questions, interview the successful authors I've worked with, and probably say platform more than a tech bro. So if you dream of landing on a bestseller list but have no idea how, this is the podcast for you, and I am so, so glad you're here. One of my favorite bombs to drop ever about my career is that I passed on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steve Larson. That's a totally true story, and here is the context. I was working at Simon and Schustera as an assistant editor, and part of my job was reviewing what's called submissions, essentially proposals and manuscripts that literary agents would send to my boss who was a senior editor. Mind you, she was more senior than me, but that was her title too: Senior Editor. Reviewing submissions is part of your job as a more junior editor and even as an editorial assistant because you get to learn by doing. Now, mind you, most editors still read their own submissions, especially when their submissions come from top agents, but this is how younger editors learn. At the time, the editor I worked for specialized in fiction, particularly thrillers and mysteries. Even though I've never really liked or read many of these books, I had to learn the standards of the genre as well as the subsets. Here's a quick town to my favorite place, and I hope yours, Tangent Town. My boss at the time tended to acquire what's known as contemporary mysteries, usually with female leads. So think of an author like Janet Ivanovich and psychological thrillers. So Girl on the Train is a great example of this, Gone Girl as well. So when The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came in, I knew right away, only reading a few pages, that this book was going to be too violent for her taste. I wrote a quick assessment, which is called a reader's report, and a few days later, when she read the sample we had been sent, she agreed. We rejected that book, which became a best-selling series for another publisher. I'm sharing the story to shed light on why rejections can feel really personal, but usually aren't personal at all. I mean, I didn't certainly have anything against Steve Glarsen then or now, right? I want you to know that industry insiders like me also know that rejections can come with a lot of bullshit. So in today's episode, I'm going to share some advice on when you as an author should pay attention to rejections and when you can blow them off, like someone who still thinks that Taylor Swift can't sing. Also, bonus points if you get the reference. Okay, so let's start with when rejections do matter and when you need to pay attention to them. Let's say you reach out to literary agents or your proposal gets sent to publishers or even me, and everyone says generally the same thing. Maybe what you're hearing is you have a good idea, but you need a bigger platform. This is the most common rejection authors get because, as we discussed in many episodes before, authors being able to sell the book is just as important, if not more so, than the idea. Check out previous episodes if you don't know what I'm talking about, because I feel like I'm mentioning this in basically every episode. It's that important. Another rejection you might get is something that goes along the lines of love the author, love the writing, but this category is quote unquote soft or quote unquote difficult to break out. This is code for we don't think this is going to sell. Most frequently, this happens in response to a memoir, but it can also happen with the prescriptive how-to nonfiction my team and I work on, especially when a particular category gets really crowded, right? Like DEI and anti-racism in 2020 and 2021, or menopause, parry, and hormonal health today. So the last rejection that you actually need to pay attention to is when everyone is saying the same thing, no matter what that thing is. So last year I worked with a client whose proposal got the same rejection from every publishing house. The responses from editors were some version of we don't see how this book idea is tied to his author platform, which was a big deal because this client had one of the largest author platforms I'd ever worked with. He had celebrity connections, he had speaking engagements, he had brand deals, he even had a freaking TV show. But the editors were right. The book idea he wanted to pursue was not connected to his platform. And though it definitely could have been in the future, and it was certainly adjacent, there was zero evidence that his audience would relate to this particular idea and buy the book. So his proposal got rejected, despite having a big platform. Okay, so that's a great example of everyone's telling you the same thing. As an author, how do you respond to rejections like this? Let's walk through each example. We're gonna rewind it back and play it forward. So let's go through the first one. Good idea, but you need a bigger platform. This is within your control to change. You need to build a bigger author platform. Simple as that. The second rejection I talked about. Love the author, love the writing, but this category is soft or difficult to break out. This one's a little harder to overcome because there's truth in this response. You could, in theory, vade out the trend, but that can take a long time to pass. Think decades, think years, not years, months. When you get this level of response, you may want to consider hybrid or self-publishing where the sales numbers aren't as big of a concern. And lastly, when everyone is saying the same thing, no matter what that thing is, you get to choose. You actually get to choose for all of this, but you especially get to choose here. You can change whatever literary agents or publishers have pointed out, whatever they're saying is wrong, or you could decide not to do that, either giving up on the book altogether or choosing, once again, you'll notice a pattern here, another route to publish. Now that we've covered when to pay attention to rejections, we can talk about when rejections are total bullshit and you can keep trying. Generic responses like, I don't see a way to break this out, or I just don't love it. This is publishing speak for I want to say no, but I don't have any particular feedback, or I really don't want to share the feedback I have because that will continue this conversation, and I don't want to do that. I'm laughing because it's true, right? As an author, your best response, and I've been in that seat, I do not want to continue this conversation, I just want to say no and move on. Nothing to do with you, author. So shifting back into author mode, as an author, your best response to this, right? To someone saying, Hey, you know, I don't see a way to break this out, or I don't just, I just don't love it, or it's not for me. Take it at face value. Take the note at face value and move on because you're never really gonna know what's up. And the more you push, the more silence you're gonna hear, right? Or maybe you'll get something, but it's not really from anybody who wants to work with you. So just keep it moving. So another rejection that you can straight up ignore is I couldn't get support in-house. What this means is that the editor loved the project, but couldn't get her bosses to agree. Once again, this is not about you. It's not really about the project. So you can also move the F on with the hopes that someone else will either get that support or actually not need it to make a deal. Another rejection that you can ignore is we want an MD or enter another credential to write about this. Once again, this isn't about you. It's not about your credibility as an expert. Honestly, sometimes this can be a cop out. Other times an editor was being real, but either way, it's not about you. So move on. And lastly, you could ignore any advice you get when it is clear that the literary agent or editor didn't get your book or wanted to take your book in a direction that you disagree with. To me, this is the easiest rejection to handle because it's not about you at all. They just didn't get it. Some people think Taylor Swift still can't sing, and I respectfully disagree. We can move on, knowing that our belief in ourselves is more than enough. Okay, so to quickly recap, there are some rejections you ought to pay attention to. You really want to pay attention to when you're getting the same feedback, especially when that's related to your author platform. If everyone's telling you your author platform isn't big enough, it's probably not big enough. You also want to notice if multiple people are saying that the category or shelf you're writing in is too crowded or soft because that means your own expectations might need to shift. And you have my permission to dismiss rejections wholesale when they feel generic, when they feel out of touch with your book, or are straight up bullshit, because it's likely that you're not getting the whole truth. In any circumstance, know that these rejections are not personal. Publishing is a business, and so everyone involved, from literary agents to editors to leadership within the publishing houses, are making business decisions. My team and I are making business decisions. That's it. That's all. For what it's worth, rejections happen to everybody. Just look at Steag. I rejected that book quickly and wholeheartedly and still don't regret that decision. That's why it's a fun story to tell. It wasn't the right book for us, but it was for Kenop and the editor who eventually bought it and loved it and was willing to work on it. So let that be a lesson. Thanks for tuning in to the Kind of a Big Book Deal podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I would love it if you subscribe and also leave a review. Not only is it good for my ego and annoying for my enemies, but it also helps more entrepreneurs like yourselves find the podcast. Also, I'm pretty sure it is good karma. So I'll see you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Kind of Big Book Deal podcast. Want to see where you're at on your book journey? Check out my free quiz at MeghanStevenson.com forward slash quiz. That's M-E-G-H-A-N-S-T-E-V-N-S-O-N dot com forward slash quiz. See you next time.