The Daily Rejection

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Hathor

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This sounds promising, polly. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. For all of us, actually.
 

Carleree

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ARgh. Another rejected partial. This one was so nice, too. She loved the MC (she's adorable) and she liked the concept and my writing. But she doesn't like sports. Well, um...my query letter says the word football quite a few times. That shouldn't have been a surprise. Oh well...here I go again...
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Hathor

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ARgh. Another rejected partial. This one was so nice, too. She loved the MC (she's adorable) and she liked the concept and my writing. But she doesn't like sports. Well, um...my query letter says the word football quite a few times. That shouldn't have been a surprise. Oh well...here I go again...
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Sorry. That's the sort of agent reasoning that drives one mad.

Reminds me of a rejection of a full (which I had to send in paper because the agent said it was "too long" for an e-reader) -- agent immediately rejected my book for being too long.
 

Carleree

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It could be worse. She could've hated the main character and my writing like the last agent.

I just hope the agents with the fulls read past the third chapter.

Too long. Pshaw! Don't they read the word-count line in the query?:rolleyes
 

pollymilton

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Booo! Um, YES football! Didn't she read the letter? Well, you're getting there, lady. You're getting there.
Big hugs, a rodgers boy and wine for you.
 

Hathor

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It could be worse. She could've hated the main character and my writing like the last agent.

I just hope the agents with the fulls read past the third chapter.

Too long. Pshaw! Don't they read the word-count line in the query?:rolleyes

She was a new agent. Maybe she didn't realize how many pages that many words will fill :Shrug: She had to have read the word count, because that's why she said she wanted hard copy. Who knows?

It would have been nice if she could have waited a few days for the rejection, though, so I could have believed she actually read some the book.

Last I checked, she had only one sale reported, so not a major loss. Just like the guy who said he'd "be willing to take this project on," but then I asked questions (like what he'd sold) and he reconsidered. I don't think he's sold anything yet.
 

Carleree

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Hathor, Boo hiss on both counts.

The agent that hated my first three chapters wrote to me today to say she'd be happy to look at my revisions. So, not a true rejection anymore, it's an R & R. Unfortunately, I don't agree with her suggestions.

I'm going to wait until the agents with my fulls respond. If they all say the same thing, or none of them offers-I'll do the revisions and send it off again. If they offer, well, I won't need to.
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Drachen Jager

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Ever want to bury yourself in a deep hole for a week, just so you'd be sure to have some e-mail next time you checked?
 

pollymilton

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oh shucks, honey.

The first drama school story set off a personal shitstorm, but I'm going forward. We need to get a virtual drink together.
 

Nightingale

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I'm beginning to think it's some kind of sick, twisted, rite of passage to be rejected almost as quickly as you hit send. I'm up to 97 rejections, endured the false hope of 6 requests for partials and 1 request for full only to receive a form letter with, "I just didn't feel compelled to keep turning the pages," scrawled across the top. Can we say, "Ouch!"? Yeah, not the four letter word I used but you get the drift. Hang in there, keep trudging through the mounds of rejections, don't give up, you're definitely not alone :)
 

Drachen Jager

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Real Writer is a trademark of Disney Inc. You'll have to pay the royalty if you wish to keep using the term.
 

Drachen Jager

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Nightingale, you should try to hit the 50 post mark before querying too much further. Check your query letter and first pages in Share Your Work, people there are pretty good at picking up on problems.

There's a forum here for finding a beta partner too.
 

flapperphilosopher

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Hahah, damn Disney! Can I sneak by with Proper Writer? :p

Anyway, woohoo, TWO today! This one was just sent at 9:21 Mountain time... I think the agent's in New York, where it's 11-something what is she doing up? Haha. It was personalized-ish, actually-- included the title of my book, and that the pages hadn't hooked her as much as she'd hoped, which at least implies the query letter interested her in having a look at the pages, yes? So, cool!
 

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Polly, I loved your blog entry, too. Glad you're moving forward despite any shitstorms.

Flapperphilosopher, welcome and congrats on the rite of passage. Here's hoping for some manuscript requests in the bunch.

Nightingale, I know the numbers can be frustrating. DJ has some sage advice. Consider putting your query and manuscript through some readers before you burn through too many agents. A 7% request rate sounds a little low. Maybe there's an opportunity to spruce things up a bit more.

I'm approaching a similar number of queries, broken up over several rounds of major revisions to both my query and manuscript. My request rate is much higher than the last time around, so I can tell that the revisions are working much better. Plus the feedback on rejections is getting more personalized and positive.
 

Hathor

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I'm feeling good. Didn't do any writing related stuff during the day yesterday -- rather caught up on my physical inbox, did actual housework (it was getting so bad around here I wanted to do it ;)), worked in the garden, and took a long walk along the canal near my house. Then last night I watched a thumping good Nats victory.

While I watched the game, I searched for publishers for books about education. Hey ho, I found a significant number of possibilities. (Google IS my friend.) So I don't have to laboriously go a long list of small publishers and see, "Would this place publish a book about education? No...how about this one?" And I don't have to give up my plans for world domination yet. I have many more rejections to go before I do that.

Oh, sorry, polly. You are the one who wants world domination. Maybe we can dominate on alternate days.

Or divide the world, choose different spheres of life to dominate, etc. I would like to dominate choice of landscaping. First act, neighbors with dead trees threatening to fall down on my property have to get rid of them. Second, neighbors who lose (or take out) trees, bushes, etc. must replace them with something other than grass or weeds. Third, those with yards full of invasive weeds (thinking of you, my dear next door neighbor) are required to get rid of them. I feel bossy when I work in my yard.
 

pollymilton

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Let's just say life is complicated, and love can last a long time. When we all get together for drinks, I'll tell you. You guys! Thanks for reading my blog! I don't want to blog about writing, because so many people do that better than me.

Also, agent on phone consult says "the Remedy" isn't evocative enough. How about "The Wedding Thieves"? I like it!

Quickbread, you are getting sooooo close.
 

Matty C.

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I just received 4 r's in the last hour. I'm going to go throw up now. Ugh.
 
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