To Resubmit, or not Resubmit. That IS the question.

I wouldn't submit the same piece, even it's been heavily edited. If the agent requested a partial and you received a personalized rejection, it should be fine to submit a new query on a completely different project (and include a word of thanks for their response to your previous submission).

There's no unwritten rule about not resubmitting, but if the agent wanted to see a revision on the first project, he or she would have said so.

I don't know if there are unwritten rules on this, but I asked an agent if they'd liked to see pages after the agent rejected the first. I'd made some changes, but the agent declined.

I think in the end it's better not to resubmit or even ask to resubmit the same work. Only with something else. Then, if they sign you, they should be happy to look at that first work again and offer suggestions.

It's usually not done.

It's kind of like if you propose to a girl and she turns you down. You can change your hair style and clothing and try again in 6 months but she'll still probably turn you down. Better to focus on new possibilities.

Go for it. I'm planning to resubmit my book to about seven different agents. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with submitting an edited work that was previously rejected, it shows that you took the time to revise and improve your work and have enough confidence in it not to give up on it.

Atlantis said:

Go for it. I'm planning to resubmit my book to about seven different agents. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with submitting an edited work that was previously rejected, it shows that you took the time to revise and improve your work and have enough confidence in it not to give up on it.

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Okay fair enough, I guess. Then here's my question: when you resubmit to an agent do you tell them that is a resubmission or do you not mention it?

Either way to me it would be awkward.

Interesting enough though, my first novel was rejected by the publisher that ultimately published it (Daw). Their reader rejected it so I gave up on it and published it as an ebook. The ebook company managed to get the manuscript in front of Betsy W, Daw's owner. She ended up buying it. Now I'm on my 7th book with them.

Still, I think it would be difficult to get the same person to accept something they previously rejected, no matter how modified it might be. Human nature and all.

Do you think it would be appropriate to submit another query? That's not really the same thing is resubmitting pages.

I have re-submitted different work... Otherwise, I haven't and wouldn't have knowingly gone back with the same novel.

johnzakour said:

It's usually not done.

It's kind of like if you propose to a girl and she turns you down. You can change your hair style and clothing and try again in 6 months but she'll still probably turn you down. Better to focus on new possibilities.

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It's a matter of degree. If you've lost a hundred pounds, won the lottery, or ten years have gone by, you might have a shot. Many query rejections are sent out by interns. A year later, the intern is different. If you sent a requested partial, though, your chances are slimmer, esp. if it was rejected by the agent. If you sent the entire MS, forget about it.

Jack_Roberts said:

I am thinking of going the ebook way, though.

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Ummm .... do you mean, you'd go into e-book first, without trying to get into 'print'?

My advice would be to get a ballpark estimate of how much money you would get from e-book publication versus standard print publication.

See Publisher's Marketplace here to get a feel for money from contracts on print books. You have to join for a month, but it's worth it if you are marketing your ms.

For e-pub payment ...

You might try to find a couple or six friends who are willing to say how much money they made last year doing e-pub.

Or perhaps you could P-mail folks here at AW who e-pub and ask them privately what writers can expect in terms of money. The worst they can say is 'None of your business.'

My take on e-pub money is this --
Unless you are writing erotica, erotic fantasy, specialized non-fiction,
or something else that's not stocked in wide array in the brick-and-mortar stores,
you will generally make much better money with a standard print publisher who puts your books on the shelves of B&N.

So, unless you're writing erotica, I'd suggest marketing to print publishers first, simply because they pay better.

Celia Cyanide said:

Do you think it would be appropriate to submit another query? That's not really the same thing is resubmitting pages.

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That was my question, too

Julie Worth said:

It's a matter of degree. If you've lost a hundred pounds, won the lottery, or ten years have gone by, you might have a shot. Many query rejections are sent out by interns. A year later, the intern is different. If you sent a requested partial, though, your chances are slimmer, esp. if it was rejected by the agent. If you sent the entire MS, forget about it.

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I've gotten nothing but form rejections to several query letters. Has anyone submitted queries again? (Just the letter, no partials?)

Erinmiller77 said:

I've gotten nothing but form rejections to several query letters. Has anyone submitted queries again? (Just the letter, no partials?)

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Yes, once. I queried an agency and received a rejection on the query. I eventually revised the book, rewrote the query from scratch, and began again. I requeried this agency because I liked the authors they repped, and they were at the top of my list.

The new query gained a request for pages. Eventually, the pages received a rejection, but now I know and won't query them again on that project.

Query letters are tricky. Query 1 didn't capture their attention. Query 2 did. Ultimately, though, it's the pages that matter.

Erinmiller77 said:

I've gotten nothing but form rejections to several query letters. Has anyone submitted queries again? (Just the letter, no partials?)

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I've received several requests for partials or fulls from second queries, and once from a third. Of course, some time had gone by, and I'd rewritten the query completely, and changed the title.

job said:

Ummm .... do you mean, you'd go into e-book first, without trying to get into 'print'?

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Ah, I think he's referring to my post. My first novel was rejected by all the major SF houses. Sold as an e-book, which caught the attention of one of the houses who bought it. It's now in it's 3rd printing.