how long before you move on?

[gp101]

How many rejections from agents do most of you suffer before realizing your beloved project may not be ready? Or may not be that good at all? More than twenty rejections? Fifty?

And once you've determined that you shouldn't send out any more queries about that particular project, do you re-work the project yet again and send it out as new, or is that project relegated to the drawer for good?

[maestrowork]

65 (and still some out there...) before I found a publisher. I never gave up on it...

Keep sending it out. In the meantime, write you next novel(s)...

[gp101]

Congrats on your persistance getting you a publisher, Maestro. I hope my skin is as thick. But if you hadn't landed that particular publisher, how many more blow-off's do you think it would've taken before you gave up on it? There must be some number that would tell you, "maybe this really ain't working."

[maestrowork]

Until hell wouldn't have it. 65 might sound like a big number, but there are still more agents to whom I could have sent the ms. out -- as a matter of fact, a few months after I got my publisher, I got a nice letter from an agent asking for a full ms.

Not to mention, I didn't send out to many small publishers at all. So if I hadn't found an agent, I probably would have found a small publisher eventually anyway (which was what happened...)

While I knew the book was not for everyone, I had confidence in its success, eventually.

Let me ask you, what are the agents rejecting? Queries? Partials? Full ms.? And what are they saying when they reject it? If more than a few agents say the same thing like "it's too slow" or "the characters are not believable" then you might want to rethink it. What do your betas say? If all is well, keep moving.

[gp101]

Maestro, honestly, I've sent out just under twenty queries (some with synopsis and partials, depending on individual requirements), all of them to agents. Half have yet to reply. Of the the half that did reply: eight form rejections with no details, and two requests (one for the full monty, the other for the first fifty).

I've just started and I am in it for the long haul. I'm not getting impatient and I don't expect to strike literary gold right out of the gate, but there has to be a point where you realize things won't work out for this particular story.

To answer your question, my betas liked what they read. The three that mattered the most had very favorable replies, including the one who was never crazy about the stuff I wrote before. I took their criticisms to heart and made a few corrections based on their suggestions (one beta is a well-read cop, and since my novel is a crime story, I figured he knew better than I). But though I appreciate their invaluable help, betas don't sell novels.

I'm not panicking yet after a measely twenty queries. I have another ten I can prepare shortly, and I can come up with another twenty contacts if need be. I just like being prepared and I don't like wasting my time (and hope), so I thought I'd ask how many queries some of you send before deciding to move on and scratching this one up to experience.

And, before another of you suggests so, yes, I'm already working on the next project.

[Avalon]

This sort of thing always makes me think about Stephen R. Donaldson. Lord Foul's Bane was rejected by 44 publishers, which was apparently everybody in the US at that time. So he started on the British publishers.

Here's an article he wrote about it:

http://www.stephenrdonaldson.com/fromtheauthor_interview7.php

[scfirenice]

I read in WD (I think) that Stephen King had over 100 rejections for his forst book....Keep going.

[icerose]

I would suggest during your wait to start writing a new one. Move on writing wise and let the agencies and publishers take their time. It might be a few novels down the road before you get an actual sale but once you get that sale it is easier to go back and get the previous ones published. (This is from other authors not me as I have my first two novels stuck at PA and am hoping in my third and forth for a real publisher).

But seriously, while you are waiting one of the best things you can do is write on the next one. The more pieces of writing you have out there, the higher you chances of success.

Good luck!

Sara

[James D. Macdonald]

There are around 200-300 legitimate agents. Around 4,000 reasonable publishers. Start at the top and work down -- meanwhile, write your next book.