The Daily Rejection

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Hathor

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Sometimes form Rs are nicer than the personalized ones, whether you are hearing you are so close (but not there for whatever reason) or you are so very far away (maybe you should hire somebody and they know someone...). They're certainly better than not hearing at all.

As someone who's been rejected a lot, let me assure you that life goes on. You end up querying and submitting yet again.

Don't worry. This being an even-numbered day you are allowed to question your talent, given my believe/doubt yourself procedure.
 

mayqueen

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I got a form R last night very late on my phone. I should probably turn off my email during certain hours of the day. I have a tendency to wake up in the middle of the night and decide it's a good idea to check my email, since I leave my phone by the bed as my alarm clock. Being half-asleep makes rejection easier to take sometimes. I was like, okay, I'll go back to dreaming about kittens and life will be great again.
 

Carleree

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Boy child's teeth are fine. No infection, and as suspected, his nerves are healing well. Woohoo! Now I have to wait and see what else the Karma bitch has in store for me.
 

triceretops

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Got a two-page single space rejection from a nice pub this morning. This was a near miss, and the editor went way overboard trying to distill his feelings and comments into a comprehensible critique. In short, the first half of the book was very dark, traumatizing, which sucked the reader right in. The second half of the book lost a great deal of that darkness, off-setting the tone. He said it was almost as if the MC has two different personalities--one reserved for the older YA crowd who could take the hardship, and the younger group who could identify with the more common, less threatening aspects of the second and third act.

Looks to me like a consistency problem. He recommended I check into some beta readers for their opinion. It was clearly a near miss, with a nice advance at stake.

I'm kind of crushed, but hopeful. I'll see what my agent says.

tri
 

Drachen Jager

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Hey Tri, you've been around, in your experience is an editor in those shoes open to another look after a rewrite? I had a similar situation, with different problems in the fall, and I keep wondering if she'd take a second look.
 

triceretops

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Hi, Drachen. This editor spent a great deal of time on this book and put me through some revisions on the first 50 pages at the very first contact. I think, I'm guessing and judging by the email, that he did not want to take the responsibility of making me do a somewhat major rewrite to correct specifically what he perceived to be (his) the problem. That's why he suggested other opinions.

However, in your case, you can always ask the agent/editor if they would be interested in a rewwrite that jibes with their perceptions. Most commonly, an editor/agent will actually ask for one in the rejection/response, and of course this is a R & R request.

I've actually done a few rewrites then resent the material, without being asked, and nobody chopped my head off for it.

tri
 

Drachen Jager

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Yeah, I'd do that if I knew how to contact her. I tried the front desk at the publisher (e-mail form), but no dice.

As for the agent... Well let's just say I'm trying to catch up to you. She didn't last six months.

My agent TOLD me I should do a rewrite based on the editor's notes, then dumped me without even reading it once I finished.
 

triceretops

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My agent TOLD me I should do a rewrite based on the editor's notes, then dumped me without even reading it once I finished.

Oh, that sucks. Hope you kept the other version. At least you have two different versions to decide on. Keep on hammering for another agent. It took me, no kidding, 420 subs to agents to get offers.

tri
 

Hathor

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My agent TOLD me I should do a rewrite based on the editor's notes, then dumped me without even reading it once I finished.

Oh, that sucks. Hope you kept the other version. At least you have two different versions to decide on. Keep on hammering for another agent. It took me, no kidding, 420 subs to agents to get offers.

tri

Well, you're my new hero. I thought I had lots of Rs :D

Carleree, glad to know your little guy is doing fine.

Hey, polly, how's your son doing today? I hope he's better...and you got some sleep.

mayqueen, you actually dream about kittens? I dream about forgetting my locker combination.
 

pollymilton

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update: second night at children's hosp. but he's doing pretty well. They're keeping him hydrated, which I couldn't do. His cough is worrisome, but then I remember he's hooked up to monitors and there are professionals there to watch him. Thanks for checking, Hathor and Carleree!
 

Drachen Jager

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My agent TOLD me I should do a rewrite based on the editor's notes, then dumped me without even reading it once I finished.

Oh, that sucks. Hope you kept the other version. At least you have two different versions to decide on. Keep on hammering for another agent. It took me, no kidding, 420 subs to agents to get offers.

tri

No I think the editor's notes were great, and I wanted to do a major rewrite anyhow (something I TOLD my agent when I first signed with her, but nooo, she wanted to submit right away (okay whine session over)).

The new version is a lot better, everyone who's read both versions agrees. I just wonder if I complicated things a bit too much in the first pages, most of my requests have come from query-only agencies and nobody seems to have read beyond the first few pages. I think it's completely fine for a commercial novel, but agents have a shorter attention span than the reading public on these things.
 

triceretops

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The new version is a lot better, everyone who's read both versions agrees. I just wonder if I complicated things a bit too much in the first pages, most of my requests have come from query-only agencies and nobody seems to have read beyond the first few pages. I think it's completely fine for a commercial novel, but agents have a shorter attention span than the reading public on these things.[/QUOTE]

Drachen, have you set a good hook up in the first few pages? I've always had this problem too, and just recently started to solve the problem. My latest blog post is HAVE YOU HOOKED OR ARE YOU BAITLESS? This might help a wee bit. Check it out in my sig line.

tri
 
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Drachen Jager

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Nah, it has plenty of hook. I think the strikes against it are, it's a very edgy opening for YA and it's very masculine which eliminates 80% of agents off the bat.

I've had nearly as many requests from men as women, in spite of querying both indiscriminately (now of course I'm seeking out men, now that I know). Counting up the rejection to request ratio for men, it's nearly four times the request ratio for women.

I'm also pushing it as SFF rather than YA SFF now, which I hope will take some of the sting out of the edginess.
 

Hathor

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Everybody's so quiet. No news?

How are your boys doing, Carleree and polly?

I've been working on my NF. Naturally, it's taking longer than I expected to do the tweaks, but I think it's worth it. I'm not quite sure if I'll requery this week like I promised you all. I've got the two trickiest sections yet to rewrite.
 

itsmary

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Two more rejections today, and it's not even Monday. :p At this point, I'm probably going to have to tweak my query letter, which I'm not looking forward to. But I guess that's just the way it goes.
 

Hathor

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Damn, damn, damn. I'm happily tweaking the NF last night. I'm nearing the end. Then it seems to me that my voice changes at about page 200. It sounds like I'm switching genre. None of my betas noticed this.

(Issue is that I've worked my memoir-y way through my travails with the school system. Now I'm to the point of homeschooling...and I commence to write an advice, how-to book. List subject, explain how we did it, move on to next subject.)

I'm trying to figure out whether to try to rewrite the last seventy pages of the book or not. It would be a complete mashup, different organization and everything. I don't even know if it will work.

Part of me wants to requery. If any agent reads as far as page 200, that wonderful person might just tell me to rewrite the end. Or not.

Gak. I used to love the end of the book. Then again, I wrote it so very long ago.

Then this morning, I woke up and thought of things I really should add in the first part of the book, too. Will this never end? I started this process four years ago.

***************************************************
In case you all didn't see this: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-tips-on-how-to-write-good/

I think my favorite is number 41: Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.

But number 43 is pretty good, too: Profanity sucks.

Well, I need to go back and do some poofreading.
 

Hathor

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Oh, I don't think one needs much rationalization for cupcakes.

Originally, I was the goddess of rewrites. Then I thought I finally had the NF done. I may need to go back to my original area of expertise.

I sure found writing fiction easier. It's hard to make your own life "have a story arc," like one agent told me to do. Those pesky facts get in the way. Then there's the problem of trying to remember when things happened. I just double-checked and found I put an episode three years before it really occurred. It just fit so perfectly where I had it. :cry:Chronological order is overrated.
 

Hathor

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Yum. Thanks.

I suppose I will get through this. I'll just bitch a lot. I already picked on poor hubby today. "What do you mean you don't remember? What the hell am I supposed to write?"

I understand now the impulse to make memoirs truthy, rather than true.
 

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Hi all. How's everyone doing? I've been in swamped-land with life and work, but starting to come up for air. Just in time, too. Got a full request yesterday from a query + partial i subbed in early March. I'd written the agent off, but her assistant just wrote, saying the partial was "beautiful."

What's really exciting about that is it's my first full request from a three-chapter partial. A lot of agents who've requested a full from the first five pages or the first chapter fall in love with that narrator's voice and are bummed when the next several chapters rotate POVs. If this assistant loved it after the first three chapters, she's on board with that structure and digging it.

Hathor, you can do it. Polly and Carleree, how're your sons? DJ, how's your daughter? Sorry to read about all the rejections posted here recently. There look like some heartbreakers and also some positive ones. Tri, I'd consider that rejection a really positive one. And congrats to everyone with requests. Whoot!
 
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