The Daily Rejection

I'm sorry I missed all the exciting news this week. Congrats on the requests to those who got them!

Hugs to those with deflated hopes. I know the feeling. And it is too early to know for sure with PW, but either way, you WILL bounce back!

Carleree, so sorry about the Dream Agent thing. I hope he loves your new shiny!

I'm out to a Lebanese restaurant tonight to celebrate 21 years of marriage. Our anniversary was actually yesterday but we spent the day moving our son to college. First one is out of the nest!

It's been an exhausting week but I'm looking forward to things getting quieter now that the big back-to-school push is finally over. Maybe I'll actually feel like a writer again. I almost wish I'd had time to obsess over Twitter with you all. I remember that from last PW.

Wine to everyone! Have a happy weekend!

So, my 9yo is awesome. Avid reader, for years all he's wanted to be is an author. He asks me today if there's any job where you just read books and decide if they're any good.

I told him that's basically what an agent does, only they have to spend some time selling the books too.

He said, "Really? That's awesome. When I grow up, I'm going to be an agent and I'll sell all your books."

So... I've got that to look forward to in 15 years or so if nothing else works out before then.

It's that time again -- Suzie Townsend is doing her Can You Handle the Truth from now until next Saturday (Aug 30). I participated once, and even though the feedback didn't go into a ton of detail, if you've been getting a bunch of form Rs it might be useful!

I'm a published author and a professional, long-time journalist but I have been having a bit of a problem trying to place a coming of age story I wrote a while back with a publisher. I did do an extensive revision a few months ago before resending it. I can honestly say it's never been more publishable. In fact, the small publisher that just reviewed (and rejected it) said it is indeed publishable but they didn't like that it was in the first person and would be more commercially viable if it were in the third person. I asked them if this meant they wanted me to rewrite it in the third person. They said they thought about it but then reconsidered because it still wouldn't guarantee me a contract. After all, it might not work.

Thoughts?

Drachen Jager said:

So, my 9yo is awesome. Avid reader, for years all he's wanted to be is an author. He asks me today if there's any job where you just read books and decide if they're any good.

I told him that's basically what an agent does, only they have to spend some time selling the books too.

He said, "Really? That's awesome. When I grow up, I'm going to be an agent and I'll sell all your books."

So... I've got that to look forward to in 15 years or so if nothing else works out before then.

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Russell Galen says he always wanted to be an agent: http://www.sgglit.com/russell.htm

LenaLovich, it's hard to say what might be the best path. Do you have any beta readers or CPs to ask their opinions?

Ooh, thanks for that WendyN!

I queried Suzie for this MS already, but my query letter is entirely revised, so it looks like I qualify. Sending query.... now.

LenaLovich said:

I'm a published author and a professional, long-time journalist but I have been having a bit of a problem trying to place a coming of age story I wrote a while back with a publisher. I did do an extensive revision a few months ago before resending it. I can honestly say it's never been more publishable. In fact, the small publisher that just reviewed (and rejected it) said it is indeed publishable but they didn't like that it was in the first person and would be more commercially viable if it were in the third person. I asked them if this meant they wanted me to rewrite it in the third person. They said they thought about it but then reconsidered because it still wouldn't guarantee me a contract. After all, it might not work.

Thoughts?

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It's up to you, they've left it open, so I'd jump at the chance. Even if it doesn't satisfy them entirely you will add depth to the story by the mere exercise of changing the perspective. Even if you find first person is the way it should read, some of the edits ought to find their way into the 1st person version.

Otherwise, look for more publishers, agents. It's a big world out there.

If you're not already using it, Query Tracker is an excellent source for finding markets and agents.

*sigh* two more rejection letters, but I still have six out there...waiting....I'm going to run out of publishers/agents soon

Plus, I'm finishing the draft to my 2nd novel...but I think I'd be a lot more excited about it if I had the first one published (or soon to be published) since it's the 2nd in the series...

Carleree said:

Dream Agent rejected. Honestly it was the kindest rejection I've had and he wants future work, so all in all it was a great rejection. But still, Dream Agent, you know?

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I'm sorry to hear that!

WendyN said:

It's that time again -- Suzie Townsend is doing her Can You Handle the Truth from now until next Saturday (Aug 30). I participated once, and even though the feedback didn't go into a ton of detail, if you've been getting a bunch of form Rs it might be useful!

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Oooh.... Thanks. I had not queried her yet.

stormowl7 said:

*sigh* two more rejection letters, but I still have six out there...waiting....I'm going to run out of publishers/agents soon

Plus, I'm finishing the draft to my 2nd novel...but I think I'd be a lot more excited about it if I had the first one published (or soon to be published) since it's the 2nd in the series...

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Sorry. I know the temptation. I wrote a trilogy, wrote down ideas for later books in series, and outlined and began drafting a prequel. Then I stepped back.

I guess it was worth it in terms of writing experience, etc. Plus I found I made changes in book 1 to set up stuff in the next two works.

LL -- there's never a guarantee with an R & R. You do it if you think it will make your work better, if not for who mentioned the changes, then for someone else. If you don't agree, approach others with your work as is. Query widely.

Sorry to all with recent rejections! (and hello --I don't know a lot of you. I feel like this thread is moving faster than it used to, but then again, I probably just have less time.)

Ooh, I wish I had something ready for Suzie's honest reply, but I have nothing but messy WIPs. I suppose I could query her with Trunked Novel to see exactly what the feedback on that would be, but in many ways, I can't see myself returning to that, no matter what her feedback was. So that seems like a waste of time.

I know what you mean, Ellielle. It's good to leave them in the trunk for at least a few years. Later you might be able to scavenge some of the best bits for a future work.

If anyone's interested, I can post Suzie's response to my query. I'm not sure how much help that is, since I presume you're not all writing middle grade, early 20th century, alt-historical fantasies, but if there's something more broadly useful in there, I can put it up.

In case any are interested, the Get Off My Lawn Con is an adult version of WriteOnCon. It just launched today, so it's still getting off the ground.

Hathor said:

Sorry. I know the temptation. I wrote a trilogy, wrote down ideas for later books in series, and outlined and began drafting a prequel. Then I stepped back.

I guess it was worth it in terms of writing experience, etc. Plus I found I made changes in book 1 to set up stuff in the next two works.

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The standard advice is to not do this, but I did it, too. You'll have to do a certain amount of writing to gain competency, so it made sense to me to keep writing the thing I had ideas for. I even wrote out a heavily detailed series of character studies that amounted to being a prequel. Even if none of it ever gets published, I don't regret a second of the time I spent learning to write. If nothing else, I got that out of it. And like DJ said, you can end up scavenging pieces out of those. I'm planning to use a plot point from my very first book in the next one that I'm outlining now.

By my estimate, I've written roughly 900,000 words in novel-length manuscripts (not including short stories, outlines, blog posts, or anything else). One more manuscript and I'll hit a million words. But I think the last one I wrote is worth publishing. So I'm working on that before finishing that original million-word goal, which I intend to meet by the end of this year.

Sorry I've been absent and I've missed some news. I'm trying to catch up. Health is improving but at a snail's pace. Still major issues that therapy and medication is going to have to solve.

Huge congrats to those who've received acceptances and positive news. I'm still waiting for inspiration to hit on a new, unique idea for my next project. I've temporarily suspended myself from the science writing for China and it's been a terrible blow to my ego and of course, the income that they've been providing. I hope to get back in that saddle soon. However, Doc says not to write anything that promotes stress like deadlines and frustrating revisions, which do send my blood pressure soaring at times, hey!

Tri

New week - yay! Glad it's the last week of August. In the past week I received a total of two responses. *cricket*cricket*


Wow, sounds like a lot of agents are using this publishing lull to work on reading through partials/fulls. Condolences on the Rs, Nora & Heather.

Carleree - Sorry for the Dream Agent R. And as others have said, I'd hold off and wait to see if you get into Pitch Wars. He won't forget your awesomeness in such a (relatively, in the world of publishing glaciers) short amount of time.

RaggedEdge - Happy (belated) anniversary!

LenaLovich - What's your submission strategy? Are you only subbing to small pubs, or to agents as well? I'd definitely recommend casting your net widely and getting some more opinions before making such a huge change to your manuscript (unless, of course, YOU are convinced that it would improve the story and have your heart set on that publisher).

Ellielle - I think PitchWars has added some extra people and extra movement to this thread.

Damn, Tri, I hope you keep improving. There was a time last year when the pinched nerve in my neck gave me trouble whenever I was trying to work at my desk, so I have an idea of how rough it is when you can't work. Hang in there.

I have well over 200 rejections. I have had some possible interests in that time. But ultimately they passed after either reading the whole manuscript of suggesting that the target audiences is not fitting. Either way, I have given up querying. I have discovered that either my style is not what they are looking for, agents typically only look for safe bets or I just don't have what it takes. Not sure what to do. I guess I will keep on. But it gets harder every day.

Write something new, Algernon. A large part of it is having the right idea at the right time.

So have lots of ideas, all the time.

Algernon said:

I have well over 200 rejections. I have had some possible interests in that time. But ultimately they passed after either reading the whole manuscript of suggesting that the target audiences is not fitting. Either way, I have given up querying. I have discovered that either my style is not what they are looking for, agents typically only look for safe bets or I just don't have what it takes. Not sure what to do. I guess I will keep on. But it gets harder every day.

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Writing is one part talent, two parts luck, and three parts dogged persistence.

It sounds like you got some good feedback, which means you have the first part. So, as was suggested, write the next thing and see how that goes.

Rejection can be frustrating, especially when it feels like you're *this close*, but it's unfortunately part of the business.

And here's the thing--if you work on something new, and it succeeds, there is always a chance you can then return to the original project once you have an established audience.

If not, you've still a) finished a novel which is a huge accomplishment most people never achieve, and b) learned a ton in the process that can only help make your next work even better.

Algernon, good advice from DJ and Lady. You just gotta keep on keepin' on.

Sorry, Tri, but I'm glad to hear you're on the mend, even if it's slowly.

Happy Anniversary, RE!

I got another full request for PW tonight (surprised--it seems so late) and one mentor asked how much I'd already queried this one. I hope we don't have to wait another week to find out!

krashnburn said:

Algernon, good advice from DJ and Lady. You just gotta keep on keepin' on.

Sorry, Tri, but I'm glad to hear you're on the mend, even if it's slowly.

Happy Anniversary, RE!

I got another full request for PW tonight (surprised--it seems so late) and one mentor asked how much I'd already queried this one. I hope we don't have to wait another week to find out!

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Yay Krash!

Happy anniversary RE! It's my anniversary too.

krashnburn said:

I got another full request for PW tonight (surprised--it seems so late) and one mentor asked how much I'd already queried this one. I hope we don't have to wait another week to find out!

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Carleree said:

Happy anniversary RE! It's my anniversary too.

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Congrats!