Greetings --
After 12 requests for chapters of my novel, and 5 bland/generic rejections, I finally got a rejection that contained a critique explaining why the agent was turning down the manuscript.
At first, I was delighted that I had received some comments -- I had read here at AW that getting concrete criticism meant that you had a "near miss." So, I was pleased to make it that far, and took a long/hard look at the critical comments of the agent (Susan Schulman) ...
to discover that my novel is hopeless?
Here's what Susan Schulman wrote:
Thank you for your patience while I read and considered your manuscript. The strength of your material at this stage is the historical presence, the research and the integration of it into the material. The writing however needs, at least for me, to be line edited, the texture and background and layer of character strengthened. Thank you for the opportunity to read and to consider your work.
As I see it, she's saying my writing is amateurish -- from word/sentence/paragraph problems to uni-dimensional characters.
I know there are six more agents out there who have yet to weigh in, but I'm not very hopeful. In fact, I'm thinking of giving up on novel writing -- I have a musical instrument under my bed that I've been meaning to pull out and finally learn to play. A much better use of my "free" time, I'd wager.
I think the only thing that could cheer me up is to learn that Susan Schulman almost never provides critiques with her rejections -- exceptions made only for those manuscripts that really have potential.
Anybody want to lie and cheer me up?
After 12 requests for chapters of my novel, and 5 bland/generic rejections, I finally got a rejection that contained a critique explaining why the agent was turning down the manuscript.
At first, I was delighted that I had received some comments -- I had read here at AW that getting concrete criticism meant that you had a "near miss." So, I was pleased to make it that far, and took a long/hard look at the critical comments of the agent (Susan Schulman) ...
to discover that my novel is hopeless?
Here's what Susan Schulman wrote:
Thank you for your patience while I read and considered your manuscript. The strength of your material at this stage is the historical presence, the research and the integration of it into the material. The writing however needs, at least for me, to be line edited, the texture and background and layer of character strengthened. Thank you for the opportunity to read and to consider your work.
As I see it, she's saying my writing is amateurish -- from word/sentence/paragraph problems to uni-dimensional characters.
I know there are six more agents out there who have yet to weigh in, but I'm not very hopeful. In fact, I'm thinking of giving up on novel writing -- I have a musical instrument under my bed that I've been meaning to pull out and finally learn to play. A much better use of my "free" time, I'd wager.
I think the only thing that could cheer me up is to learn that Susan Schulman almost never provides critiques with her rejections -- exceptions made only for those manuscripts that really have potential.
Anybody want to lie and cheer me up?