I’ve seen an odd trend on social media this week.
I see people posting their rejection letters. The writers blur out the name of the agent and or publisher, but post the rest.
I’m here to let you all know posting these is unprofessional. I spoke with seasoned agents, writers, and editors and they all agree: don’t do it.
Those posting appear to not be able to differentiate between form letters and personal rejections. They make comments about the rejections. They announce every time they receive a request.
Sharing this information is not in the best interest of your career. The emails are part of a conversation between you and an agent. People will read it and recognize the rejection (if they received the same note) and know who sent it.
I know publishing is hard. We as writers are rejected often. I understand looking for community and support from fellow writers, but this is not the way to do it. Think about what you’re putting out there.
Save the word count from those posts for your manuscript. If you are still compelled to share on social media, I suggest making it generic, say you received a rejection, and let the support come to you. I believe in the long run you’ll be happy you kept the details off social media.
This on-line database provides lots of feedback in an appropriate manner.
Good luck! Keep writing! I hope you find your author agent match.
Holly's Narrative Dream 
I somehow managed to miss this trend, and I’m really glad at the moment. YIKES.
I believe they’re doing it as a way of connecting, but are so new to the business they don’t understand how unprofessional this behavior is.
I agree but the problem is agents are doing the exact same thing with Ten Queries, and complaining about various queries they’ve received. Professionalism needs to come from both sides.
I can see your point, except as far as I recall, 10 queries was used to teach and improve the chances for other writers. So although it can sting it wasn’t meant to demean.
Publicizing rejection letters is something better left to private groups of like-minded writers helping other writers or querytracker.net. Query Tracker was a great resource and guide.
Querying is difficult and as writers our hopes go high and sink low. I get it, trust me. I received a rejection last week from an agent I queried over 2 years ago! I don’t know why they bothered to respond after all the time.
The good news is I have amazing representation now. An agent who gets me and my work and works with me to help me present myself to the world.
The hardest part for me reading the publicized rejections was the writer didn’t seem to understand they were form letters. And the people replying to the posts didn’t know either. The writing community if full of generous people who help one another, it’s important to mix with people of all kinds of experience.
Hope you find your perfect fit if you’re looking. Keep writing!
Thanks, I have an agent and am a published writer. I was just commenting as this happened to come up in my feed. I don’t feel a lot of the Ten Queries I saw were particularly helpful and I’ve seen quite a few which would have crushed the writer who sent it. But beyond that, my personal view is that communications between writers and agents are business communications that should remain private, and I’d thought you’d agreed. But it seems you only feel the writers should give the agents privacy, not vice versa. Interesting! Anyway, agree to disagree. Good luck!
Actually, we agree. I think the communication should be private. And if I was still querying I would think twice before sending to someone who publicly embarrassed anyone. 🙂 My experience of ten queries was always: this didn’t work, pass. I’m not a fan public shame or airing conflict on a public forum if direct communication is available.