The Daily Rejection

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Carleree

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While I am unsure if the field actually exists, I would imagine it would include teaching boy octopi how to chat up girl octopi and to not go in with the tentacles too quickly.

:roll:


Awesome. At least you have a back up career plan.
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Witch_turtle

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Got my 5th rejection today. The R's themselves don't make me feel bad, but the overall sensation of doom is pretty heavy. Sigh. Rationally I know I have nothing to worry about yet, but it's still so daunting to think...this could continue FOREVER!!
 

Hathor

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I'm looking for agents that do both YA and adult fantasy

Do you have a work that is somehow both?

Now I looked at query tracker and if you put in one or the other, you have a list of 325 that are accepting queries.

Some agents may just say that they will handle any fiction and don't specify. You want to find them too.

However, if you go to 1000literaryagents.com and put in both criteria, you still have a list of 284. (You need to doublecheck the info on this list because it was created a while ago.)

I'm finding as I do research that the descriptions on querytracker, agentquery, PM, the agent's website, and any available interviews may disagree with each other. I've had people respond favorably even though one site or another would indicate no reason at all that they would.

I found it useful to go through the latest Guide to Literary Agents. I haven't done it yet, but if you subscribe to PM, I believe you can find who represents whom. If your work reminds you of particular authors, you can see who represents them. Also monitor agent discussions on AW.

Here is another site I've recently found but I haven't used it yet.http://sites.google.com/site/literaryportal/literary-agent-directory

Finally, there is always plowing your way through P & E.

Yes, all of this takes time, but I don't know any faster way of doing it.

Can anyone else think of any other ways to come up with names? Those are all the ones that occur to me right now.

By the way, Miss Plum of the 380 queries has a graphic novel. According to querytracker, there are only 36 US agents accepting queries in this area.
 

Kandybar

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Awesomesauce. I bow before your expertise.

The reason I've been looking for someone who does both is that I have several finished novels and not all are YA, though the one I'm currently submitting is. My vague plan is do everyone who does both, then do the YA only ones, and then, perhaps, move onto publishers who take unsolicited manuscripts? But this is great, thank you, I shall dig through and add people to my list.
 

Hathor

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Other ideas --

You might also ask on the relevant genre forum(s) on AW if someone has a list of agents. I know I've seen this information for some genres at least on websites. Maybe someone has already done the heavy lifting for you ... Or you could try googling. Doing so I found this right away
http://www.writers.net/agents/browse/cat.php

Could have agents not shown elsewhere :)

But there are genre-specific sites as well.
 

Hathor

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All right, I managed to find a few more agents to try, making my list 48 now. We'll see if I add more than that.

Atta girl :Thumbs:

Remember you don't have to find and add them all at once. You just need to keep on researching and querying. Who knows, you might just need a few more queries to find the one.

Speaking of finding the one, has it dawned on anyone else that this process resembles dating. They don't get in contact or respond to your messages. Or you get a gruff "sorry, not interested" or "it just isn't working for me." Even, "it's not you, it's me." And the ever popular finding fault with you once they have expressed some interest for a bit ...

I guess my years of dating torment actually had a purpose after all. It was preparing me for querying :D
 

SarahP

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I've been adding to the list little by little over the past three weeks or so. No mass blast querying for me!

And thus far today, it's been quiet on the rejection front. Then again, it's Thursday, so some folk are winding down as they head for the weekend, I imagine. I expect things to start up again on Monday.
 

Carleree

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One rejection today, from an agent I actually thought I had a shot at. But alas, my dream agent has yet to reject this book, so there's still hope for this batch.
 

Sydneyd

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I never know who I have a shot with and who I don't. But then again, I purposefully don't get attached to any one agent or agency. Rejections seem to come in at odd times, some right away, some weeks later. I would hate to send out a query to a dream agent, only to get rejected 5 minutes later.
 

Phaeal

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Oh, great. Now, on top of talking to dead Cylons, I'm hearing crickets. Crickets, everywhere, every day! The torment...gasp...make them stop...
 

Hathor

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My dream agent is someone who will love my book as much as I do -- and knows what to do with it. So I can't really tell in advance. Certainly my take on who will be most interested in the book has been way off.
 

Hathor

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Yes, the crickets seem bad until a rejection comes in. I got a form one just now, myself. Why are they working late?

Oh well, it would be awkward if everyone said yes given how many queries and submissions I have outstanding. It just takes one.

I see I'm at my 50th form reject. I think that's what is bothering me. Maybe I shouldn't compulsively count everything:e2bummed:

On a lighter note, someone requested the first five pages on the 6th. I wonder how long it takes to read them? I have this on my count for "requested material" but I may be pushing it :Shrug:At least the premise of my book or my query aren't so bad that she didn't want to read anything.
 

Perno morris

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Got three more rejections in the old box by the street. Alas, alas, alas...I'm thinking of finding some other way to get this done, youknow, beat them at their own game. There must be some way to get noticed!
 

Duchessmary

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I wish I knew, *&@#(!!!!!! I still haven't redone my stupid QL, I'm still looking at it like it's a snake. Tomorrow I'm going to really give it a shot. Or shoot it.:guns:
 

Erin

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Awesomesauce. I bow before your expertise.

The reason I've been looking for someone who does both is that I have several finished novels and not all are YA, though the one I'm currently submitting is. My vague plan is do everyone who does both, then do the YA only ones, and then, perhaps, move onto publishers who take unsolicited manuscripts? But this is great, thank you, I shall dig through and add people to my list.

This is pretty much what I'm doing. I write both YA and adult urban fantasy & paranormal romance. I figure if I get an agent who only does YA, then maybe someone in the agency might handle adult (or vice versa), or I concentrate my next WIPs on YA only. My preference is to find an agent who handles both, though.

Hathor has given great advice. I searched all the same databases for the names on my list. Although I never searched P&E per se, I used it to check on warnings though.

I got one query R today.
 

SarahP

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I'd ideally like to find an agent, or at least an agency, that reps all of my writing, too.

Chalk up one more rejection today, and three queries sent out.
 

Hathor

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True, finding one agent to deal with would be nice. But if you get an agent for one book, that agent can give you a referral to someone handling another genre (if not in that same agency). Plus, if you sell a book, I would think you would be much more likely to be able to pick up another agent, if need be.

I'm not saying to start out with this in mind. But it is a fallback position anyway.

So far today, one form reject and a full request (from a snail mail query mailed on Tuesday). I'm sorta psyched about the latter, since the agent is in my target audience. (If she doesn't like the book, I don't know what I'll do.)

I should be getting lots of responses at any point. I feel like the mass-blast query queen of this thread. Maybe I'm just sick and tired of waiting. I don't know that there is any more direct searches I can do at this point. What is left is P & E, which seems overwhelming. But Miss Plum said she just did a little every day and it added up. I think I will work on this during football games and the baseball playoffs. Lots of dead time, commercials, etc.
 

Erin

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Hathor, congrats on the full request!!!

I still haven't done a P & E list either for Book 1. At this point, if I don't get an agent on Book 2 which still has life left on my list, I'll wait and start anew with Book 3 in December or January. Then I can target all my top agents again. So not looking forward to it.
 

Sydneyd

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I am kind of jealous to all of you who have more than one book! I have two outlined and an idea for a third. BUT the two I have outlined are sequels to the one I am trying to get an agent for. I have mixed feelings at getting them done. What if I never get an agent for the first? Then the next two are pretty useless. And I would be heartbroken.

I have near to 15 queries I believe, out swimming in no man's land. And I still havent heard from the partial or full request. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing.
 

Erin

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I am kind of jealous to all of you who have more than one book! I have two outlined and an idea for a third. BUT the two I have outlined are sequels to the one I am trying to get an agent for. I have mixed feelings at getting them done. What if I never get an agent for the first? Then the next two are pretty useless. And I would be heartbroken.

Well, I have more than 1 book because I've been querying for 2 years ;) ...I keep plugging away hoping one of these books will snag me an agent.

Think about not writing the sequels yet and write something unrelated next. The 2 books I'm querying are first books in 2 seperate series. I won't write the 2nd one unless Book 1 sells. I didn't want to invest the year of time writing a sequel if book 1 never sells. The WIP I'm working on now is a total standalone...I couldn't see starting another series.
 

SarahP

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I've been doing this for ... a long time. I'm going to be one of those umpteen year "overnight success" stories one of these days, I tell you.

Add another rejection to the column for me.
 
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