Another Use For Rejection Letters

We've all heard stories about writers who've received enough rejection letters from publishing houses to paper a wall. Well, there's a better use for these carriers of bad news.

A useful suggestion was found in an article by a very prolific writer named George Haddad-Garcia. He wrote an article for Writer's Digest (July 1982) that listed thirty cost-cutting ideas for writers. The one I especially liked was number ten: "Scratch pads are often free at hotels and motels; don't overlook these, either. The backs of rejection letters can be used for scratch, jotting down ideas, notes, phone numbers, or for rough drafts."

So those annoying rejection letters not only can make you more determined to succeed as a writer, they can be turned over to the blank side and used to help you create the next award-winning novel or short story collection (you hope).

Magazines For Writers Are Finally Acknowledging Writers Of Color

From the 1970s to the early 2000s, when I subscribed to Writer's Digest magazine, the only black writer I can remember seeing on the cover was Alex Haley of Roots fame. In all that time I never saw any articles about black writers or other writers of color in its pages. It was as if  other writers of color like John A. Williams, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Ernest Gaines didn't exist.

I recently resumed my subscription to Writer's Digest (no longer a monthly; it is now published every two months). I was delighted to see writers of color like Zadie Smith and Viet Thanh Nguyen featured as well as an article about Patrice Caldwell, a young black literary agent.

Finally, Writer's Digest and other writing magazines have ceased ignoring writers, editors, and literary agents of color in their pages.