Rejection Letters Hurt, But Some are Really Funny

A book called Other People's Rejection Letters: Relationship Enders, Career Killers, and 150 Other Letters You'll be Glad You Didn't Receive may not seem like the most upbeat project to work on, but Bill Shapiro found it curiously inspiring.

"A rejection letter, after all, has remarkable power," he said. "A single piece of paper with a dozen words -- even a form letter typed years earlier by an inexperienced, possibly hungover assistant -- can sway or scar a life, causing one person to give up his dreams, another to work harder to achieve them."