The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

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Nova Odyssey

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Hi Nova! I'm still here :hi: (and still offer-less)

Sorry to hear about the agent-parting, but congrats on the new agent!
tx and good luck with that R& R! I hope I'm not confusing threads, so much to respond to...

Yup, subjective is the name of the game. That may actually be my least favorite word in the English language right now, subjective!

Speaking of words, is there a word- maybe a long German one?- for the overwhelming sense of dread and horror that you feel when you hit the send button on a query and you're certain that you screwed SOMETHING up (agent's name/weird typo in the query that makes you appear completely incompetent as a writer/somehow your entire copy and pasted query got mixed up and you pasted a recipe for lentil loaf instead, etc), even though you checked it at least nineteen times and everything looks fine? That word needs to exist, because it features heavily in my life.
if it makes you feel better... even if you make a mistake things can work out. on one offer I had a typo in query letter and called my book a "fiction novel". with another offer I called agent Mr. instead of Ms. in email (quickly wrote back with apology). it is good to avoid but sometimes things are overlooked! I reached a point (and read this recently) where: good enough for me and my life is what I aim for, not perfection.

So, this isn't nearly as cool as getting an agent...but I just got an email that a story I submitted to the Writer's of the Future contest for the 4th quarter round received an honorable mention. So that's kind of neat. I don't really know much about the contest and I submitted on a whim, but apparently I get a certificate? Lmao.
congrats! that is something indeed. all these things count~~

good writing everyone. yeah, once I finally go on sub will feel good to move to next step, but not there yet.
 

Taylor Harbin

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Got a personal rejection from Cast of Wonders. I waited for days until they finally opened up for submissions again. They said that although they liked the writing and the story overall, some of the wording in their rejection confused me. They said the conflict was "too easily resolved" and I'm not sure if that is referring to the cliffhanger ending or something else. Either way, I have run out of pro – rate magazines to submit to for this piece.
 

sockycat

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R cookies for all who need them!! And maybe some caffeine injections for my fellow nano people.
 

Belle_91

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I don't know if this has been addressed or not, but what are y'all's thoughts on querying during the holiday season. I know you shouldn't query like the week of Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, but what about that in between time. I've read a few conflicting things on the internet, and I wanted to see what y'all's thoughts were.
 

Shoeless

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I don't know if this has been addressed or not, but what are y'all's thoughts on querying during the holiday season. I know you shouldn't query like the week of Thanksgiving and/or Christmas, but what about that in between time. I've read a few conflicting things on the internet, and I wanted to see what y'all's thoughts were.

It's better to not do it, honestly. A lot of agents will even make announcements with cut-off dates saying they are no longer looking at queries from Date-X until January, and some even go so far as to say they'll delete queries that do come in, unread. American Thanksgiving through to New Year's is pretty much vacation/home-stretch time for a lot of agents, and they'll be doing the family-stuff too. If an agent doesn't explicitly say anywhere on the agency website that they are closed to queries, then go ahead and take a chance, but expect even longer response times. If an agent or agency does put out a public announcement saying they're closed to queries, just honor their request. Websites like Query Tracker will usually make a note of which agents are currently accepting submissions and which ones aren't anyway, so that's always a good resource to look at to check if the agent you're interested in is even currently open.
 

polishmuse

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I would query, unless an agent says they're closed. Think of it this way: you're taking a number to stand in line. They may get through fewer queries during these busy months, but the line starts somewhere. For perspective, my agent requested my MS around Thanksgiving last year and I got an offer "for Christmas".
I agree with Shoeless that longer response times are the norm, though! Instead of closing out at 6weeks or whatever makes since from the QT statistics, consider tacking on another few weeks.
 

Shoeless

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Passed the 100 R mark for Origin at some point this past month (not sure exactly when). I'm surprisingly chill with that.

Congratulations on breaking the 100K mark. For any novel that's SFF that's not unusual at all, so chill away.
 

Shoeless

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100 R as in 100 rejections ;-)

I totally misread that. Sympathies and condolences, but you are taking it in stride, so that's good. I've got a few hundred rejections under my belt. Not sure if that's something to be proud of, or deeply ashamed of.
 

A.P.M.

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Both agents who had the full of my MS rejected. One form, one gave feedback that was clear about it just not being right for her personally. I've only queried ten agents, so there's plenty of life left in the MS. Two full requests followed by rejections makes me wonder if I should take it back to the beta stage for the holidays.
 

EMaree

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Both agents who had the full of my MS rejected. One form, one gave feedback that was clear about it just not being right for her personally. I've only queried ten agents, so there's plenty of life left in the MS. Two full requests followed by rejections makes me wonder if I should take it back to the beta stage for the holidays.

I'd say it's a bit early to be taking it down for revisions, unless the full rejections had any feedback that struck a particular chord.

---

Also, re: querying over Thanksgiving... if the agent is open for subs, I say sub. I know advice varies on this though, so this is purely my thoughts. E-mail queries over the holidays shouldn't fluster any agent with a reasonable e-mail system.

There's no point hesitating, it just means the manuscript will be even further down the e-mail queue the longer you wait.
 
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amillimiles

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Hi guys! So... I know I disappeared for a while, but I'm excited to announce...

I HAVE AN AGENT!!!!! :hooray:

I am so grateful to the AW community for all of your support and kindness (critical, harsh, much-needed-criticism type of kindness), and feedback over the years! I've met some amazing writer friends here and I look forward to cheering everybody on and giving a helping hand to those who started out like me.

I'm crafting a blog post on How To Write A Query Letter (to be loaded with Wonder Woman gifs), to hopefully help those who are still in the trenches, so stay tuned!

But... THANK YOU again! Now I get to move into the next circle of hell. I swear they're all grinning at me with a "here's a new 'un. Let's see how long she lasts 'ere before goin' insane" look. *sidles over*
 
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CJSimone

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Hi guys! So... I know I disappeared for a while, but I'm excited to announce...

I HAVE AN AGENT!!!!! :hooray:

I am so grateful to the AW community for all of your support and kindness (critical, harsh, much-needed-criticism type of kindness), and feedback over the years! I've met some amazing writer friends here and I look forward to cheering everybody on and giving a helping hand to those who started out like me.

My final query stats were:
Queries sent: 31
Fulls Requested: 14*
Partials Requested: 2
Queries Withdrawn: 15
Offers of Rep: 5

I'm crafting a blog post on How To Write A Query Letter (to be loaded with Wonder Woman gifs), to hopefully help those who are still in the trenches, so stay tuned!

But... THANK YOU again! Now I get to move into the next circle of hell. I swear they're all grinning at me with a "here's a new 'un. Let's see how long she lasts 'ere before goin' insane" look. *sidles over*

Congrats, amillimiles!!! :Clap:
 

Harlequin

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Sub to smaller presses/places that take unagented, nudge the two who have fulls, and trunk if nothing comes of that :) Work on the next one.

Good luck with the pitch wars line of attack! And congratulations amililies.
 
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JJ Litke

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Congrats, amillimiles!

Sub to smaller presses/places that take unagented, nudge the two who have fulls, and trunk if nothing comes of that :) Work on the next one.

Good luck with the pitch wars line of attack! And congratulations amililies.

Ugh, trunking work really sucks. I'm still worried my current MS is going to turn out to be too hard a sell. I hope you get happy responses from the fulls you have out.
 

Collie

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Congratulations amillimikes!

I’m sorry, Harlequin. I am also in the 100Rclub. We should get T-shirt’s or something.
 

amillimiles

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Thank you, guys!!!

Best of luck to everyone in the query trenches. It's hard, it can be discouraging, but remember -- just work hard and work smart. 1. Don't give up, and 2. Get feedback/critiques. The harsher, the better. And this forum is the BEST place for it.

I'll be lurking around to extend helping hands/critiques to the community. :partyguy:
 

CJSimone

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Sub to smaller presses/places that take unagented, nudge the two who have fulls, and trunk if nothing comes of that :) Work on the next one.

Good luck with the pitch wars line of attack! And congratulations amililies.

Hope something works out for you, and thank you! :)
 

sockycat

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Hi guys! So... I know I disappeared for a while, but I'm excited to announce...

I HAVE AN AGENT!!!!! :hooray:

I am so grateful to the AW community for all of your support and kindness (critical, harsh, much-needed-criticism type of kindness), and feedback over the years! I've met some amazing writer friends here and I look forward to cheering everybody on and giving a helping hand to those who started out like me.

I'm crafting a blog post on How To Write A Query Letter (to be loaded with Wonder Woman gifs), to hopefully help those who are still in the trenches, so stay tuned!

But... THANK YOU again! Now I get to move into the next circle of hell. I swear they're all grinning at me with a "here's a new 'un. Let's see how long she lasts 'ere before goin' insane" look. *sidles over*

:partyguy::partyguy::partyguy::partyguy::partyguy: YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!
 

Emermouse

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Congrats, amillimiles! Good luck with your agent and good luck with your post about query letters with Wonder Woman gifs. I'm sure it will help a lot of people and hey, maybe it'll finally help me out. I loved the Wonder Woman movie and spent the Justice League one thinking that Wonder Woman probably could have solved all this stuff without all the other guys. To the extent she'd need help, she call oneveryone, except Batman and Superman, because those two are just such horrible wet blankets with all the charm of a rattlesnake, and get the world good and thoroughly saved in time for everyone to have Shwarma.
 
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