Could use some encouragement for my frustration

clek25 · Feb 10, 2017

So to put it simply, I am a big proponent of "jumping the gun". It's something I'm working on, and I think getting better at, but long story short, I started querying agents way before my manuscript was ready. Yesterday I got a response from an agent I was really eager to work with. It was a really nice personalized email (rare) saying how she got really excited by my query (so I guess it's not all bad news) but when she read my first ten pages she just wasn't into the story.

Of course there are tons of reasons agents don't connect with a manuscript, but since I sent out my work before it was as perfect as I could get it, I can't help but feel like I might've had a better chance had I not been so impatient and satisfied with "just okay".

What's done is done, but I wasted my not-perfect writing on quite a few agents that I was really interested in working with, and I'm kind of bummed it looks like I may have ruined my chance at getting published for being too impatient.

If there is there anyone who can offer advice/words of encouragement/similar situations I would really appreciate it. Just feeling frustrated at myself and pretty down right now.

Maryn · Feb 10, 2017

Who among us hasn't jumped the gun, or even the shark, at some point? We query too early, or submit work we think is good because we're blind to our own flaws, we post work at SYW when our skin is so thin we bleed easily, we seek beta readers when we can only accept praise and a few typos.

Okay, you blew it with this one agent, and possibly others, on this one book. That's a shame, and a mistake I bet you'll never make again. But you weren't going to write the one book and hang up your typing gloves, right? So short term, polish up this book. When it gleams, you can decide whether to continue to seek agents for it, or hold onto it while you write a second book that's even better--at which point you can re-query the same agent. Who knows, she may rep it and ask what else you've got.

Meanwhile, I'm pouring mimosas and serving orange-glazed croissants in the salon.

Maryn, who's messed up a time or twelve

MadAlice · Feb 10, 2017

Look at it this way. Your query had at least one agent "really excited," so once your MS is polished and ready, it should continue to excite at least a few others.

clek25 · Feb 10, 2017

MadAlice said:
Look at it this way. Your query had at least one agent "really excited," so once your MS is polished and ready, it should continue to excite at least a few others.

I thought the same. Trying to think of the positives.

And Maryn that was exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

spottedgeckgo · Feb 10, 2017

I think you should focus on the fact that your query letter works, even if your first 10 pages didn't for this particular agent. Had something similar to this happen once, and only looking back on it now can I see some of the flaws in that opening chapter. But you have a working query!!!

And the best part is, there's like 10,000 other literary agents out there to pick from. Maybe give the MS a rest for a bit to work on other stories, and come back with a better eye for what perhaps didn't grab that agent. Pitch your chapter to some beta readers and ask for advice. Iterate, then try again.

But.. You have a query letter that works! Do you not realize how huge that is? You should be celebrating!

Ninka · Feb 10, 2017

I am in the same boat: queried too early, got requests for partials, got rejected. One rejection was so personal and nice that I am going to re-submit to this agent when I am ready. I am approaching this issue of early queries/rejections from this angle: I admit I made a mistake. I admit that my book still needs a lot of work. So I write and edit and write some more. When my novel is as good as it can possibly be (a very subjective assessment), I am going to start querying again. I am not even forgoing a possibility to query the same agents that rejected me. What's the worst that can happen? Another rejection? So what? By the time I circle back they might not even remember the first query. All we need is patience and hard work. My current plan is to start querying again by June. Don't despair. Your situation is not the end of the world. Polish, edit, re-write and try again.

Staugaard · Feb 10, 2017

I have some kind of disease, where I think, "this is the best writing I can possible do - time to query!" - only to realize about two weeks later that there are still a lot of little mistakes and plotholes to fix. The cure would probably be to wait two weeks without querying, but somehow it doesn't work like that. I just can't enter brutal-edit-mode unless I'm shopping around at the same time.

clek25 · Feb 10, 2017

Ninka said:
I am in the same boat: queried too early, got requests for partials, got rejected. One rejection was so personal and nice that I am going to re-submit to this agent when I am ready. I am approaching this issue of early queries/rejections from this angle: I admit I made a mistake. I admit that my book still needs a lot of work. So I write and edit and write some more. When my novel is as good as it can possibly be (a very subjective assessment), I am going to start querying again. I am not even forgoing a possibility to query the same agents that rejected me. What's the worst that can happen? Another rejection? So what? By the time I circle back they might not even remember the first query. All we need is patience and hard work. My current plan is to start querying again by June. Don't despair. Your situation is not the end of the world. Polish, edit, re-write and try again.

Interesting thought. I guess it's true they receive so many submission they may not even remember depending on how long ago it was. (My first (crappy) query was May of last year, you can imagine how much my MS has improved since then.)

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad someone is in the same boat. And I know "perfect" is so subjective, but I didn't even run it by anyone else before I started. I at least want to do everything I can, you know?

And @spotted, you're so right. I am celebrating! But it's overshadowed lol

@Staugaard I guess a lot of people have the same problem. We'll get there!

jliz0808 · Feb 10, 2017

clek25 said:
Interesting thought. I guess it's true they receive so many submission they may not even remember depending on how long ago it was. (My first (crappy) query was May of last year, you can imagine how much my MS has improved since then.)

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad someone is in the same boat. And I know "perfect" is so subjective, but I didn't even run it by anyone else before I started. I at least want to do everything I can, you know?

And @spotted, you're so right. I am celebrating! But it's overshadowed lol

@Staugaard I guess a lot of people have the same problem. We'll get there!

I have requeried two different agents, two different times after they rejected my full and told them that they had requested my full in the past and they passed, but I had done a rewrite and would they be interested in taking another look. I, of course, had my new shiny query and the sample pages per their guidelines. Both agents requested the full again.

I would absolutely requery especially if they used the word excited in their email to you. Make sure you are upfront with them and stroke their ego a little.

Good luck and all is not lost!

Alcasgra · Feb 10, 2017

I had queried a little too soon twice or thrice... Hell, maybe fifty times. LOL! I got plenty of rejections too, but I don't think it's necessarily a horrible thing to submit a manuscript when it may not be as perfect as it should be. Sometimes, reading too much into the same thing is not helpful. In my case, I have discovered that the more I read through it, the worse it becomes, mainly because I usually add unnecessary things to the manuscript. If you feel that you've done as much as you possibly can, I think it's perfectly all right to submit it. =)

blacbird · Feb 11, 2017

Okay, I encourage your frustration. And empathize.

caw

RLGreenleaf · Feb 12, 2017

Did she say what it was, about the first ten pages, that she did not like?

Perhaps that might give you a clue for how you should handle your rewrite.

Accept as much advice as you can get from them, and learn as much from it, even if it's a rejection.

Best of luck on your next one.

mystere · Feb 12, 2017

Alcasgra said:
I had queried a little too soon twice or thrice... Hell, maybe fifty times. LOL! I got plenty of rejections too, but I don't think it's necessarily a horrible thing to submit a manuscript when it may not be as perfect as it should be. Sometimes, reading too much into the same thing is not helpful. In my case, I have discovered that the more I read through it, the worse it becomes, mainly because I usually add unnecessary things to the manuscript. If you feel that you've done as much as you possibly can, I think it's perfectly all right to submit it. =)

I do this too.
All the mistakes people are saying they've made I think are very common.

I've gotten plenty of requests and have improved my manuscript but am still in the purgatory of waiting and starting to become depressed about it.

blacbird · Feb 12, 2017

RLGreenleaf said:
Did she say what it was, about the first ten pages, that she did not like?

In my experience, that just doesn't happen. Either the agent says "Send a larger partial (or a full manuscript)", or simply says "No, thanks." Don't expect critique from an agent, with just an initial query and sample submission. They are far too busy to engage in that sort of thing.

caw

Cindyt · Feb 12, 2017

My middle name is She Who Jumps the Gun.

Ninka · Feb 13, 2017

Cindyt said:
My middle name is She Who Jumps the Gun.

LOL Could be mine as well.

clek25 · Feb 15, 2017

Cindyt said:
My middle name is She Who Jumps the Gun.

Ugh same. I do this is many things in life, not just writing. Really something I'm trying to work on.

Thank you all for the responses. It truly helps just knowing I'm not alone

cmi0616 · Feb 15, 2017

The other day I got a personalized rejection from a magazine saying they liked the story I submitted but felt it was "un-even". As evidence of this, they cited "missing words here and there." Very embarrassing.

As others have said, just as many of us are prone to jumping the gun, a lot of us are also wont to resort to a certain type of depressive realism (in my personal experience, every rejection seems to confirm my lack of talent, and every success will meet its end when the other shoe inevitably drops). Rejections from agents do not spell the end of your career, nor do they negate your chances of getting published. There are more agents around than the industry knows what to do with, and the personalized note is a good sign for future submissions.

Send it to some betas. Have them see what you can't. Then do another round of queries.

Could use some encouragement for my frustration

clek25

Watching Disney movies

Maryn

Baaa!

MadAlice

We're all mad down here

clek25

Watching Disney movies

spottedgeckgo

Da Gecko

Ninka

Staugaard

clek25

Watching Disney movies

jliz0808

Alcasgra

blacbird

RLGreenleaf

Ummm, just one more chapter...

mystere

blacbird

Cindyt

Gettin wiggy wit it

Ninka

clek25

Watching Disney movies

cmi0616