“You only need one yes” has bothered me for ages bc as you say, you need a series of yeses to get a book trad pubbed, let alone build a stable career. Happily I haven’t gotten it in a query rejection, but I have gotten its short fiction analogue “I’m sure another market will snatch this one up!” on stories that have already gotten 10+ rejections and are running out of pro markets. “Someone else will love it” is never a good thing to say.
“You only need one yes” has bothered me for ages bc as you say, you need a series of yeses to get a book trad pubbed, let alone build a stable career. Happily I haven’t gotten it in a query rejection, but I have gotten its short fiction analogue “I’m sure another market will snatch this one up!” on stories that have already gotten 10+ rejections and are running out of pro markets. “Someone else will love it” is never a good thing to say.