The Daily Rejection

I spent part of today on promo for my upcoming release, but then got a form rejection from another publisher.

Who was it that said success isn't permanent and failure isn't death? Was that Ditka? Sounds like something he would say.

I appreciate having a place to come & whine about my rejections. It still stings -- I wrote the story for a submission call & thought it was really good. Now I'm trying to resist the urge to take a figurative red pen to it. We'll see.

According to my friend Google, Ditka said, "Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal." Many cite this. But then the appropriately named bored.com tells me that Winston Churchill said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." The latter also said, "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

But here is your rationalization for the day, from John Keats: "Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid."

Sounds like that always cheery friend you sometimes wanted to smack, huh?

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I had a conversation with an agent. She told me eight small ways I should fix my book. I realized too late I should pin down if this was an acceptance with requested changes, an R & R, or a rejection with explanation. I thought I wouldn't know how to explain this all to you folks. Oh no! I tried to contact her again, but things got weird.

Then I woke up. This was an actual dream I had last night. You all are Officially Important to my subconscious, I guess. Too bad I don't recall enough details about the book of the dream, like characters, plot, or genre.

Wow, Hathor. That is one specific, vivid dream! Kinda up there w/ being in college and realizing you have a final in a class you never even went to. 20 years after you got out of college. LOL.

At least it didn't happen IRL? That would've been sweat-worthy, not knowing what they meant.

I woke up trying to remember the eight changes, thinking I'd received insight through dreaming...then it slowly dawned on me this wasn't a book I've written.

I still have those dreams about forgotten classes and college was well more than twenty years ago for me. Ones about forgotten locker combinations, too. Edit: yet I never forgot a class or a locker combination in reality. What primordial fear do these dreams reflect? Did early humans dream about forgetting where the tribe had moved?

Gah, I have those college dreams, too! Just the other day, as a matter of fact. I really, truly hate them. Woke up with a headache after the most recent one. In one of them, I brought my diploma to the professor to prove to him that I didn't really need this class at all. How ridiculous.

Oh Hathor -- I had an agent dream a few weeks ago. He's an amazing agent who recently rejected my full and gave me a very nice personalized email about it. In the dream, we had lunch and I kept waiting for him to mention my story, and he never did. Then he took my ten year old daughter outside to play catch. I watched from the doorway. Then it ended.

Current status -- one partial out and waiting on 3 Qs. Should probably send another Q or two out.

c.e. -- what a dream. You figure the agent will not only crush your literary hopes but steal your kid's affection as well?

Well, I'm proud of myself. Today, I exercised, got in my piano practice (I'm paying for lessons, after all), rewrote my NF proposal, and even edited the demand letter hubby wrote to the insurance company of the driver who almost killed us back in August. Not a bit of procrastination.

The agent who wanted my proposal actually wrote back to say she would wait to hear from me. (I'd told her it would take a couple days to make revisions.) That's four emails from her so far. Since this is an odd-numbered day, I'm taking that as an encouraging sign.

Now tomorrow, I will realize that she hasn't actually read any of my book and, at best, is interested in the concept. I mean, the agent with the partial has had it long enough, really, to get around to asking for the full... Yep, my NF is crap. But all that comes in an hour and a half.

Got a form R on a query yesterday. This is my last batch before I give up on this novel. Blah. I also had a strange agent dream last night! In the dream, I sent the agent an email asking if my R&R made it there or not, and I got yelled at by the agent. I'm glad my dreaming brain is aware of etiquette too? Or maybe is trying to tell me to work on patience?

Urgh. Silence on the queries and page requests, but found out today that my day job lost the contract I work under. 9 yrs with 'em. And they can't tell us how quickly we'll be out the door--weeks or a year? No one knows.

So yeah. Sucktastic Thursday. Hopefully the inbox stays quiet of writerly rejections today, 'cause I just do not need it.

Oh, ams (if I can give ya a nickname), that does truly suck. Sorry I hope they will at least let people know...and that any email action you see will be positive.

amschilling! Oh no!! I'm so sorry. I hope you get some solid information soon. And some good writerly news!

Thanks, guys! And yeah, Hathor, I've been called worse. So that nickname is fine.

I'm more worried about all my staff than me, honestly. Not that we can afford it, but I've been to this rodeo before, you know? The world will keep turning and something will eventually come up. And we'll make sure, no matter when it happens, that my 6 yr old still has an awesome Christmas and is blissfully unaware until later. My poor guys, though--the market is really bad all around, and for IT techs it's horrible. But...it is what it is. Maybe I can channel some of the angst into the WIP. And it gives me good motivation for another query blitz. I need the distraction!

Oh Amy, so sorry to hear that. Booo. Sending good thoughts your way.

Amschilling, how terrible D: I'm so sorry!

I received what I suspect is a form rejection on a full from an agent today. I wasn't expecting anything else, since this agent has repped some serious best sellers. Oh well. This week has just been a lot of mourning for me as I prepare to trunk this project, anyway.

(PS Is it appropriate to send a short "thank you for your time" email, or is that just another email to clog the agent's inbox?)

Aww, that sucks mayqueen. I know agents don't owe us anything, but a form on a full hurts.

I usually send a "thanks" to agents who reject pages and have some kind of feedback (partial or full). I figure if nothing else, it's polite and maybe shows I'm not one of those crazy folks who go ballistic. It may or may not do anything for me, but you never know. And I might be querying them for the next one.

Sorry, mayqueen. Have you truly run out of possible agents to query? What genre are you writing in?

I've noticed that sometimes the genre listings in querytracker and agentquery differ from each other, what an agent shows in PM, and even what an agent says on the agency website (or sells).

Heck, some agents just list "fiction" and seem to be willing to look at any category.

Forgive me if you already know all this. It's just I've run across people who give up too soon, so I wanted to make sure you weren't in this category.

Have you received any personalized feedback from agents that could inform a rewrite?

Full rejects are always hard to take. Especially when you've gone through multiple subs to get there--query--pages--full. It's a lot of time, wait and anxiety. That's exactly where we'd like to know we've had a breakdown so we can remedy the problem.

Keep punching, mayqueen. You're not alone in this.

tri

Awwww mayqueen, I'm so sorry D: Form Rs on fulls are the worst.

And yeah, I think it's totally appropriate to send a thank you note! I usually would send one if the agent gave some feedback, or a specific compliment.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll send a brief note.

Hathor, I write historical fiction. I've hit the end of my (long) list of agents. I am waiting on feedback on an R&R I just resubmitted. I hope it goes well, but I'm preparing myself for rejection. I just think it's time to focus on the WIP for the time being.

I really appreciate the encouragement!

Mayqueen. I am so sorry. What a real disappointment. Keep writing. Keep writing. We all believe in you!

I'm so happy I found this thread. I'm new to AW and am finding it to be quite the wealth of information. Sorry to hear about everyones rejections. I definitely feel your pain. Anyway, if I may, I'd like to whine about my rejections too.


I'm very hard on myself. I'm not one of those writers who would ever query prematurely. I'm the kind that will edit for two years, convinced my writing is never good enough. I've read every book out there on writing. Then I re-read every book on writing, edit some more and take another year to be sure I'm happy with what I have. So, I've finally queried after getting a few critiques and I even paid $200 to some place Writer's Digest advertised as a good place to get critiques. I know what you're thinking, I should join free groups. Trust me, if I could find a group willing to actually read for me I would and I don't mind critiquing or beta reading for others. I've done that a lot and gotten no one to do it for me. I even entered four contests that would give critiques, I was that desperate for crits. After much editing I queried 33 agents and 3 epublishers. One agent has my full ms. One asked for the first five pages. And I've gotten fourteen rejections, including a new one last night from the agent who wanted the first five pages. One agent who rejected me said he loved my writing and wanted me to write him when I got my first contract because he was sure I would soon.

But, I gotta say, each rejection takes its pound of flesh. I'm lacking tons of motivation and considering throwing in the towel on this ms. I'm even finding it hard to get motivated enough to contine my W.I.P. It's hard to stay positive when no one, including crit groups, will read your work.

So, that's my rejection story just thought I'd share. Thanks for reading.

Fourteen rejections is way too early to hang it up. I saw one survey of a group of writers who got agents. The average number of rejections up to that point -- 62. And realize some managed agents quickly, balancing out those with Rs in the three figures.

Vent all you want, then recommit. (I alternate days. On even-numbered days, I think I write like crap. On odd, I believe in myself.)

Once you have fifty posts, you can post your query up on Query Letter Hell and see what folks have to say.

Until then, have a cookie. Or a glass of wine. Remember that the more you write, the better you'll get. Or so I've been told...

BTW I always include the first five pages with a query, unless the instructions are clear that only the letter itself is wanted.

Thanks for the encouragement. That glass of wine is definitely a good idea.

Oh, the agent that requested the first five pages was one who specifically asked for only the query letter first.

Well said, Hathor!

WiltRhys, welcome to the Daily Rejection. We have booze and blanket forts for these types of days. Best of luck picking yourself up and trying again!

Awesome. Booze and blanket forts sounds like my kind of party. Thanks for the welcome, Beckstah.