Material request + rejection = bad book?

What are the agents' reasons for rejecting the partials or fulls? If they are something you could and should address, you might want to do that before you send material to a new set of agents.

If I were an agent, I'd ask for the first five-ten pages of the MS with the initial query. My sense is that would save agents and writers a lot of disappointments, wasted time, and postage, as so often the actual writing doesn't click.

barber, i think i got about 6 or 8 R's
on my partials when i regrouped with my
crit friends and revised the first 50 pages or
so.

it's really difficult as the responses are
very subjective--but in my case, there were
some similar issues that were mentioned.

i needed to tighten the beginning and
raise the stakes and tension. if you hit
any more R's on partials, i'd suggest maybe
asking for fresh eyes to read your first chapters?
then revising.

you don't want to send out a second batch
of partials / fulls if the first batch all come
back as R's without some revision. good luck!

Barber said:

Do books ever get mucho rejecto but still find a way to one agent's heart?

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All the time.

Barber, all you can do is write the best book you can, which is what you did. This business is terribly, terribly subjective. An agent looks at a submissions the same way you and I look at a potential book to read. The description of the story sounds great, you might read the first few pages or even a chapter and say, yeah, I want to read this. But when you do, it's not as you expected. The story doesn't resonate, you end up not liking the characters, the author's voice doesn't hook you, etc., yet your friend John didn't have enough good things to say about the same book. An agent is no different. Not every book is for every reader/agent/editor.

I've been querying agents on my urban fantasy since the end of January, and I've received a variety of feedback, good and bad, contradictory and similar. It's about personal taste. Do you think your book is a bad book? I know mine isn't. I love the book I wrote. I wish there were more books like it for me to read.

This is a process. Tastes vary widely. Hopefully there's an agent out there with good enough taste to recognize your book's value.

barber, fyi, i began doing the "hold off"
to new partial requests. i think it's fine to
wait a week or two to send off another partial
or full if you're planning on revising.

and when it's all said and done, i got my
agent on my original first chapters--before
revision. so i can't even tell you if my revised
partial would have been effective.

it is so subjective! you just have to roll with
it and trust your gut!

good luck!

I got 18 manuscript requests based on query/partials for my first novel. So far, 3 have said "try me with your next story" 3 have said "revise and resubmit" several have rejected, one agent rejected it but has expressed interest in my WIP, and only 1 partial has turned into a full.

Just to give you an idea of how it goes.

Hey Barber,
I'm feeling the same way you are and are situations seem to be very similar. At least we know we can write awesome query letters that generate interest. I also have had agents give me feedback that is all over the place and doesn't give me a clear idea as to what may be wrong. Just like you, agents have told be they loved thing others didn't and didn't like things that others felt were strong parts. Hmmmm. I know it sucks.

xiaotien said:

barber, fyi, i began doing the "hold off"
to new partial requests. i think it's fine to
wait a week or two to send off another partial
or full if you're planning on revising.

and when it's all said and done, i got my
agent on my original first chapters--before
revision. so i can't even tell you if my revised
partial would have been effective.

it is so subjective! you just have to roll with
it and trust your gut!

good luck!

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I second this completely. First, barber, you're getting a lot more interest than I ever have with my book, so console yourself with the fact that you must have a great idea and a great query. I've gotten two requests for partials on stuff that I have subsequently re-reviewed, and looking back I think the writing was not so good; but they still asked for it.

I have no idea what this business is about, it seems more like the lottery sometimes!

A lot of it has to do with whether an agent thinks he can sell the book. So it doesn't necessarily mean the book's good or bad, just whether he thinks he knows the right editor for it. Or whether he's enthusiastic about it. Some years ago I had an agent who was looking for a cozy mystery. (This was before I knew about AW or I would have asked.) If I'd known someone who was writing a cozy, that would have been wonderful. You just have to hope that you hit the agent at the right moment, which is why you can go out of your mind. (Btw, that agent went out of business.)

Tburger said:

I have no idea what this business is about, it seems more like the lottery sometimes!

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All of us should have that tattooed on our foreheads.

I just got another rejection today that is so different from what other agents are saying. It is enough to drive me mad. I am still not sure if changing things will make it better or worse. I also got two more requests for my proposal. But I am growing very tired of this game.

Thanks, Barber. You rock!

Barber said:

Never give up, gettingby!!!

The first 100 pages are currently on their way to one of the three biggest agencies in the world--I can hardly stand it, but I have to believe it'll find a home one day.

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It will! Have faith, it will.

Rejection by agents and/or publishers is not a maybe, it's a given. It comes with the territory, and is something every writer will experience, whether or not published before. Unquestionably rejections are most often quite subjective, but I would suggest that we take each and every reject to heart. I think that's part of the growing process and can only serve to make our works better. When I get a reject the first thing I do is confirm (research) that I indeed sent it to an agent and/or publisher who is the right fit for the work. If yes, and if I receive an abundance of rejections (I would say seven to ten), perhaps it's time for me to reevaluate my work and decide if the rejections have any credence -- perhaps a rewrite is in order. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we should closely examine rejections to see if they have any merit. Hard to do since
the work is our baby, but I think it's fundamental to our growth as writers.

scope said:

Rejection by agents and/or publishers is not a maybe, it's a given. It comes with the territory, and is something every writer will experience, whether or not published before. Unquestionably rejections are most often quite subjective, but I would suggest that we take each and every reject to heart. I think that's part of the growing process and can only serve to make our works better. When I get a reject the first thing I do is confirm (research) that I indeed sent it to an agent and/or publisher who is the right fit for the work. If yes, and if I receive an abundance of rejections (I would say seven to ten)...

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You consider seven to ten an "abundance" of rejections?

...perhaps it's time for me to reevaluate my work and decide if the rejections have any credence -- perhaps a rewrite is in order. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we should closely examine rejections to see if they have any merit.

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That assumes an informative rejection. Form rejections tell the writer nothing except "no."

I received 44 rejections before I got my agent. Or my agent got me. Heh. And I never made a single change to anything I'd been sending out.

arkady, yes, I do consider seven to ten rejections to be sufficient for me to evaluate who them can from and if they have any merit, whether or not the rejects are personalized. It's not that I think seven to ten is a lot of rejections, because it's not, but it is to say that it's a signal to me to take a second look at my work and the query letter I sent out. I may not change anything, but I just might. I never want to wait until I receive 40 or 50 rejections before doing this. However, that's me and how I approach things. Others work differently and I certainly respect their right to do things as they see fit.

I was starting to panic over this exact same issue. As the requests and rejects started to come in, I noticed that all my material requests were coming from agents who had only gotten my query letter (which I, very humbly, think is pretty strong), whereas the rejects were coming from agents who had gotten sample chaptes as well. Oh the horror! I had considered revising my first chapters until, literally, Wednesday of this week where I got two responses on partials - both of which spoke in very glowing terms of the writing.

I think if you've had trustworthy readers give you feedback and you feel comfortable with what you are presenting, you have to hold onto that confidence.

Until I get a response that says "You suck donkey balls. You shouldn't be reading books let alone writing them." I'm going to try and stay positive!

All writers we must always be positive. If not, if the lulls throw us into a state of depression, we aren't long for this business. This is a given. And we have to love what we ultimately write, but not love it to a point where we lose all perspective and objectivity. Like it or not, writing is a business, and it's incumbent upon us to be business people as well as creative people. For me that means that in part I must constantly monitor what I've written -- manuscript, query letter, proposal -- and improving upon it when needed. Rarely have I written anything in any form which when reexamined I find cannot be improved upon. Accordingly, when I look at what I've written after 10 or so rejections of same I do so because I may find a way to improve upon it, not because I don't believe in what I've written or because I'm not positive. It's business. I want to sell what I write as quickly as I can.