We Regret to Inform You ...
“We regret① to inform② you ...” These are the words that every writer dreads③ receiving, but words every writer knows well.[1]The response④ from a publisher comes back and the writer eagerly opens and reads it, their hearts sinking when they reach that final sentence.You may have spent years giving⑤ up your weekends and free time to write your life's work, yet still this is often not enough.Everyone knows that success rarely⑥ happens overnight, but perhaps not many know that a lot of highly successful writers have previously faced rejection⑦.
[1]本句是and连接的并列句。在后一个分句中，their hearts sinking 是独立主格结构作伴随状语，when引导时间状语从句。
Take for example⑧ J．K.Rowling.When she received her first rejection letter, she decided that it meant she now had something in common⑨ with her favourite writers, and stuck it on her kitchen wall.Rowling had spent years surviving on little money, spending all her time writing.When she finally finished her first book, she received comments from publishers along the lines of “too difficult for children”， “too long”， “Children would not be interested in⑩ it”．Nevertheless?， she persevered?.“I wasn't going to give up until every single publisher turned me down?， but I often feared that would happen，” she later posted.After a total of twelve rejections, one publisher eventually agreed to print 500 copies of her first book, and[2]as we know, Harry Potter? became a global success, with over 400 million books sold and translated into more than seventy different languages.
[2]as引导非限制性定语从句，with复合结构作状语。
All too often writers of great works have had to face criticism? along with rejection.J.D.Salinger started? writing short stories in high school, but later struggled? to get his works published?.“We feel that we don't know the central character well enough” was the criticism he received on his manuscript? for The Catcher in the Rye.Despite rejections from several publishers, J．D.Salinger refused to give? up.Even when serving in the US Army during the Second World War, he carried six chapters of The Catcher in the Rye with him and worked on the novel throughout his war service.When it was eventually published, the book became an immediate bestseller and went on to sell millions and millions of copies.
Perhaps the overall prize for perseverance should go to three sisters from Victorian England who dreamt of seeing their words in print.This, however, was a time when women were not encouraged to become writers.As the then Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, wrote to one of them：“Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be.” Nevertheless, the sisters didn't stop trying.Their response was to write a book of poems under male names.Even when the book sold only two copies, the sisters still didn't give up.They started writing novels, and today Charlotte Brontё's Jane Eyre, Emily Brontё's Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontё's Agnes Grey are regarded as classics of world literature.In fact, it is within the pages of Jane Eyre that we can find these words: “I honour endurance， perseverance, industry, talent；because these are the means by which men achieve great ends ...”
So, it seems that talent alone isn't enough to guarantee success.While a lot of hard work and a touch of luck play a part, perseverance is the key.[3]Keep trying and eventually you will read the words “We are delighted to inform you ...”
