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Not quite. Top Notch Agent might well decline to approach ABC Publishing, because it had already rejected you. Editors who've rejected manuscripts generally don't want to see them again, and a good agent won't risk her relationship with an editor by submitting something she knows the editor doesn't want to see.Rommeldawg said:I am curious as to your last paragraph, though. You seem to indicate that, if Authentic Creations submits my manuscript to ABC Publishing House, and ABC were to decline extending an offer to contract, that, in the future, if I were to procure Top Notch Agent to represent me, ABC would flatly not consider the work.
Editors do remember what they read. Not infallibly, I suppose, but it's certainly a good possibility.
What if there are several editors at the publisher or imprint? Resubmission is a possibility in that case. But for many publishers and imprints, rejection by one editor is considered to be rejection by all. (Not fair? Maybe. But it's a buyer's market, and buyers get to set the rules.)
Some houses log submissions, some don't. For those that do, you may be able to slip by if you change the title. But again, if you run into that editor who remembers reading (and rejecting) your work, that editor won't be happy.
Of course, you don't have to tell Top Notch Agent that your work has been rejected by ABC Publishing. But if she submits there and the editor sends it back with a note saying "Sorry, I've already seen this", Top Notch Agent is not going to be very happy with you. That's not a good basis for an author-agent relationship.
Honesty is definitely the best policy, even if it makes you less appealing as a client. If you do decide to seek a new agent, you are going to have to let that agent know where your work has already gone.
- Victoria