What do agents mean when they say...

That sounds like a form reject to me. Have you tried posting your query in SYW?

That might help you get an idea of whether it needs work.

It does sound kind of like form rejections, to be honest. However, I'm not sure that ten is a large enough sample size to assume it's a problem with your query. Someone with more query experience may jump in and say it's an indication *shrug* but ten seems low to me.

Definitely a form rejection. Like Wayne and Kathleen said, not enough to know for sure. It might just be subjective. It could be the agents you queried aren't into fantasy. Or it could be that your query needs work. Kathleen's suggestion is a good one.

Good luck with it!

I think Kathleen is right too. Ten isn't a lot. Don't get discouraged, would be my advice. I was rejected more than 50, maybe even 100 times before I got an agent.

Yep, definitely form and yep, definitely not enough rejections to be getting worried about the query.

Unfortunately, some form letters actually say, "your story sounds interesting," which to me, is misleading, because the agent obviously doesn't find everything interesting. But then, if it lessened angry crazy people writing me back, I might put it in a form rejection too.

The only way to be sure it's a personal note is if the agent referenced characters/events/ideas in your novel specifically. (I got a personal note from an editor that marked 1/3 into my synopsis, "your story starts here." Excellent advice, and I was very grateful for it.)

As far as number of rejections, I got 30 before I started querying a different novel. This decision was partially based on the fact that I thought my second novel was a much easier sell, and I knew the query for it was much more solid than my first one.