Is it a matter of if at first

Probably.

Rarely is anything the case of sucess at first go.

Somteimes the case is try, fail and give up.

But I don't reccomend that.

Good luck!

Yes...keep trying and trying. And if you have an opportunity to get beta readers, do so. If you keep getting rejected, you may need to polish. Sadly, though...you could have a perfectly polished piece and still not get the break. Make sure you use the SYW area here for your query and synopsis...fresh eyes can help to make those most important representations of your work better.

The best of luck to you!

And all the while -- write your next book.

Too many people spend thirty years trying to sell a fatally-flawed first novel.

James D. Macdonald said:

And all the while -- write your next book.

Too many people spend thirty years trying to sell a fatally-flawed first novel.

Click to expand...

That's the best advice I've heard all day. It's only 9 am, but still.

Very few people sell their first book on first try.

Yup, what Uncle Jim said.

Sebby said:

Yes...keep trying and trying. And if you have an opportunity to get beta readers, do so. If you keep getting rejected, you may need to polish. Sadly, though...you could have a perfectly polished piece and still not get the break. Make sure you use the SYW area here for your query and synopsis...fresh eyes can help to make those most important representations of your work better.

The best of luck to you!

Click to expand...

I have a question about that. Not to hijack this thread, I'll throw my 2 cents in in a minute. But I've had a chapter up in the YA SYW forum for a few days now with plenty of views but no replies. Could it be that no one who has read the work has anything to say about it? Or perhaps it is just not interesting enough to generate any comments. I'm a bit puzzled.

As to the topic at hand, once you are satisfied enough to shop your work, you don't know IF you've got something worthwhile until you get 20 or 30 rejections. If you've had not requests for partials, rework your query. If you've had partials rejected, you may want to revisit your work and find more imaginative ways to refine at least the opening chapters. Patience and persistence is the key element here (says the guy who still hasn't found an agent or a publisher).

And yes, show your work to others who you trust to provide honest feedback.

Oh yeah, and what those guys said. Keep writing new stuff.

Once I had written the best query I could, I started sending out letters. I set myself a goal of 100 queries before I would allow myself to be dejected. I got an agent after sending out 88. There are people who get an agent off their first letter, or even one of their first ten letters, but that may be an unrealistic expectation. By the time I had sent out a hundred queries, I had finished a second novel. If you keep writing while you query (I set aside one day a week to do queries) then you can start again with your second novel, which will be stronger than the first.