Sniff Sniff

My first rejection letter from a story submission, at least I got pretty far for my first submission.


Chicken Soup for the Soul
August 16, 2007

Dear Kimberly Dawn,
We wish to thank you for submitting your work, Acceptance as a possible inclusion in Chicken Soup Soul: Children with Special Needs(r). We appreciate your efforts on behalf of the book and your willingness to share your message with the world. We have been so moved by all of the people who have reached out to us with their own stories and the stories of others. As you know, your story was among the top finalists. This is a great accomplishment as we received thousands of submissions over the past year. The process of choosing what went into this book has been very difficult because there have been so many wonderful stories. Our decision to include or not include a story was primarily based on our reader panel. The panel read and rated the top 300 stories. Their scores were then averaged and the top 101 stories were considered for the book. We then reviewed all of the stories and made sure the book was balanced in all of the chapters (i.e. sometimes we receive too many of the same kind of story).
Based on the above, we were unable to include your wonderful story in Chicken Soup Soul: Children with Special Needs(r). However, we may consider it for any upcoming books in our production schedule. We also encourage you to send in any other stories, as we really appreciate your writing and interest in our work.

SoulSupporter.com Wants to Highlight Your Story

Co-author Heather McNamara has decided to develop a new, easy-to-use web site that features original content where support, reassurance, and additional drive that only other support providers of children with different needs will understand. This site, www.soulsupporter.com, will be a friendly environment where you can trade stories about your children, the hardships, the frustrations, and most importantly the triumphs. You will be invited to meet people from across the world or perhaps across the street where you can exchange information, resources, recipes, laughs and shoulders. The site will also offer practical advice from expert sources and links to the latest medical research from all over the web.


Get Your Free Autographed Copy of Chicken Soup Soul: Children with Special Needs(r).
Be one of the first 100 SoulSupporter.com members and receive an autographed copy of the book! The site is still in the beginning stages and Heather is very interested in your feedback with suggestions on how SoulSupporter.com can become the leading destination on the Internet for parents of children with Special Needs.

Please keep sharing your work with others because the messages are so important for all to hear.
We send you lots of love and best wishes.
Sincerely,

Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Heather McNamara and Karen Simmons
PS. Please help us help those who need your support. Be sure to visit www.SoulSupporter.com and email Heather at hmcnamara@verizon.net to grant your permission to have your story posted on the website as soon as you can. She is also very interested in any informational material you may have regarding your child's special need for the resource section.