The Daily Rejection

I can only imagine-guess that the influx of and competition of the submissions is what's weeding out even good/great manuscripts. If an editor sees that they will have to work too long and hard on the manuscript to get it in pristine condition, they'll pass. In my case, I could assume that all of my American slang would not translate easily or at all, for the numerous foreign language editions out there.

I've often wondered why I have never received a R&R from any large publishing house who thought I was very near ringing their bell. Time contraints? Too much work? And these were all agent submissions. I don't think anything is getting past the editor's desk that isn't of break-out quality today. It used to be that editors plunged into a book that they thought was a total winner, which only needed some fine-tuning. I'm not so sure anymore.

What's most astonishing is that I've been offered over 18 small press contracts for about six other books that met the same fate. I signed with six and tore the rest of them up. But I do know one thing--those small press pubs actually read the book cover to cover, remarking on all aspects of the storyline.

Color me confused and pit-worthy. The only thing I can do is forge on and watch my Ps and Qs from here on out--and I mean with an electron microscope.

Tri

Hathor said:

I realize I am showing my utter inexperience. But I have to ask. If there were only minor problems, why wouldn't the publishing houses be willing to look again? What's the worst that could happen? They would say "no" again. Or is it understood in the industry that if they reject you, that's it?

I admit to an ulterior reason for asking. I'm at the point of approaching small publishers myself for my nonfiction work.

Good luck. It's exciting to see one of our own so very, very close.

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Okay, I'll play. This is what my beta said about my YA novel, Never Everly:

It’s easy to read, and I am impressed with your football acumen.
To conclude, I have no criticisms. You’ve written a book that should be published.

It's hard to argue with the truth

Okay. I like feeling good about myself. This is a blurb written by a local education activist who beta read my book. (Charlotte is my daughter.)

"Charlotte’s story is surprising, dramatic, and a remarkable window into contentious issues of general and special education. You don’t often see that combination – a good story and a keen analysis of public policy in one book."

I fear one doesn't see that combination because agents don't like it. But that's another issue.

I also fear the beta readers for my fiction have been of the "mention what they don't like and fail to mention what they do" variety. One told me, "Oh, if I don't mark anything, that means I can't find fault with it." I think I need a few fawning readers, or at least ones who will spontaneously tell me what is right.

Annnnnddd, partial reject from Fine Print. Grrrrr. What do these people WANT???

pollymilton said:

Annnnnddd, partial reject from Fine Print. Grrrrr. What do these people WANT???

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*passes Polly strong drink* I think they're all cyborgs who only want to rep writers with poor grammar.

pollymilton said:

Annnnnddd, partial reject from Fine Print. Grrrrr. What do these people WANT???

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If I knew that, I suppose I wouldn't be on this thread. Sorry for the downer.

Anywho, to go with your strong drink:

Oh, you guys are the best.

I'm just going to go sit in the corner for a while and consider my life as a delusional loser. Or maybe I'll go pick up my kids and get on with my day. Agent is v. young. Maybe she can't relate to a 40 year old protag. Yes! That's it! "I won't think about that today, I'll think about that tomorrow! After all, tomorrow is another day!"
Yours,
Scarlett O'Hara

Life is always better with a Gone With the Wind quote. Or is it life is always better with chocolate? Hmm. One of those.

Carleree said:

Rejection today. One I was expecting, so not upset.
At least I know my email program works.

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there you go!

Yesterday, I wrote an amazing new query for my book. I swear it was a complete breakthrough moment. Too bad theres no one in Christendom that I haven't already queried.

Also, 4 more days and I reach the one month mark on my outstanding fulls. Am I the only one who basically considers it a rejection once its been a month?

carefulwithwords said:

Also, 4 more days and I reach the one month mark on my outstanding fulls. Am I the only one who basically considers it a rejection once its been a month?

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Probably not the only one, but you're in the minority, I expect. I think responding positively to a full within one month would be rare.

According to this, you shouldn't nudge on a full until six months have passed.
http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2010/01/nudging-know-how.html

Carleree, life is better with: a strong drink, chocolate, and a functional hockey team. (A baseball one, too, but you are Canadian. I make allowances ) And a Gone With The Wind quote. Fiddle-dee-dee.

carefulwithwords said:

Also, 4 more days and I reach the one month mark on my outstanding fulls. Am I the only one who basically considers it a rejection once its been a month?

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You shouldn't! When I was querying last year, I got all my partial and full rejections within a month... and then I got several positive reactions in the same week, and all of those subs had been out for 2-3 months. You never know!

I love all of you. All. Of. You.

Also, being a newbie at querying, I have no idea what Christensen is. To be honest, other than the few big names (Maas, William Morris, Fine Print, Writer's House) I have no idea what agencies are the big ones. Ignorance is bliss?

I think he was going for "Christendom".

Carleree said:

I love all of you. All. Of. You.

Also, being a newbie at querying, I have no idea what Christensen is. To be honest, other than the few big names (Maas, William Morris, Fine Print, Writer's House) I have no idea what agencies are the big ones. Ignorance is bliss?

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LOL I meant Christendom. I was typing on my phone...autocorrect.

Thanks for the advice about the fulls, guys. It just seemed like everywhere I look online the agents who really like a full call within a couple of weeks. And those ones that linger on seem to turn into form R's (if you even get a response at all). Of course, I would never nudge or even think about it before 6 months (ok maybe at 5 months I would) . I'm just being a pessimist today (and yesterday) and probably tomorrow

carefulwithwords said:

LOL I meant Christendom. I was typing on my phone...autocorrect.

Thanks for the advice about the fulls, guys. It just seemed like everywhere I look online the agents who really like a full call within a couple of weeks. And those ones that linger on seem to turn into form R's (if you even get a response at all). Of course, I would never nudge or even think about it before 6 months (ok maybe at 5 months I would) . I'm just being a pessimist today (and yesterday) and probably tomorrow

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Clearly sleeping in didn't help my brain reboot

carefulwithwords said:

Also, 4 more days and I reach the one month mark on my outstanding fulls. Am I the only one who basically considers it a rejection once its been a month?

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You shouldn't think that way, because you don't know if they even opened it yet. Even though part of you is like, "if she/he really liked the partial then she/he wouldn't be able to wait to read the rest so she/he would drop everything else and get back to me." Doesn't always happen that way.

I have one out for A YEAR (nudge every 6 months). Does the realist in me think I have a chance? Prob not. Don't we all always feel this way a lot of the times? But she's what I think is a big agent and I come with an author recommendation, and so I do believe it's that she is so busy it gets forgotten. So, my heart says yeah reject because it's more than a month but that's not logical if she hasn't even opened it yet.

So just keep yourself busy with other wonderful things! I had a baby and am half way through my second novel in the year this full's been out.

Carleree said:

To be honest, other than the few big names (Maas, William Morris, Fine Print, Writer's House) I have no idea what agencies are the big ones. Ignorance is bliss?

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Duh, I don't know. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Short of subscribing to Publishers Marketplace or otherwise investigating the clients and deals of specific agents and spending quite a bit of time reading the threads for each agency on AW, I ran across this list, which shows who has the most clients:

http://www.agentresearch.com/dreckoning.html


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Gee, stop me before I revise my damn query letter again. It's inching up in word count, but getting better. (I think.) It's not like I have tried it out on any agents yet.

Hathor, that is so interesting.

I'm working on your letter. Next week ok?
P.

who has the most clients might also be synonymous with who's least likely looking for new talet, right?

Welp, I got my Friday afternoon Query R. A nice one sentence "Not for us, thanks." I really appreciate those. Wonder if anymore will roll in as EST 5pm approaches?

oh guys, you gotta read this, LOL

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1196083-top-ten-list

That is hilarious, careful. I particularly like number 8: "Excessive communication with other delusional writers only reinforces your own delusions." No one any of us know, of course.

And it's true that lots of clients might mean someone that doesn't want anyone new (or doesn't have the time to do much work for anyone new even if signed). I did have some nibbles from that list, at least.

polly, that's fine. I'm not close to having a list of whom I want to query first. I am deep into reading critiques of others' queries. (I better send the brand new version of the letter out to you before you do much, huh? And then stop making changes...) And my synopsis needs polishing, too.

I haven't got a feel for where the gentlest critiques would come from after this -- here on AW? openquery.blogspot.com? somewhere else? Hard to get on Query Shark and I'm not sure my ego is ready for that, anyway.

Carefulwithwords, I like number 3

And Hathor-thank you for the link. I bookmarked it so I could read it when it's quiet around here.

xxoo

Hi guys - just popping in from hell.

Don't forget that most of the queries end up in a slushpile where an overburdened intern has to deal with them. The delays in getting a response from an agent are sometimes because the intern hasn't got around to vetting the query yet.

I had a response to The Beggar's Opera about 8 months after I sent a query from an agency where the intern was simply swamped.

By the time the agent got around to expressing interest, I had representation.

What I can say is that generally speaking when an agent gets a query that they like, they respond quickly. But the delay sometimes isn't them but who sees it before they do.

Hope this helps. Hang in there! Hi Carleree! *waves*