THIS is how you handle a rejection :)

Very nice and professional.

(Just a caution: you might want to delete any contact information for yourself and the agent in anything you post here. You never know who--including spambots--are looking. Also, the agent might not appreciate the details getting out)

Yes. Please edit the contact info out of the post.
and yes, it looks like you handled the rejection properly. Recently he posted on Twitter that someone replied to his rejection email with "My name's not 'author'" or some such nonsense. I'm sure he preferred your reply.

That is awesome. I'm sure he's very grateful for your graceful (and sane!) response.

There are times some writers think they're the only ones to get rejection. This is a professional response that my lead to results later. Thanks for sharing this.

Politeness and professionalism ALWAYS pay off! Thank you's aren't always a necessity, but sometimes they can pave the way later on. They have for me in a few instances.

Hope it does for you. He seems to be a great agent!

amyashley said:

Politeness and professionalism ALWAYS pay off!

Click to expand...

No, they don't, not ALWAYS. But, on my end, I ALWAYS apply them, anyway, despite a number of responses of a contrary nature.

Being polite to a rejection probably won't ever get you a "Never mind, I'll read your MS," but I decided to apply the original poster's advice to all my rejections from here on out.

Tough advice sometimes to follow, but the momentary satisfaction of a suicidal retort can't compare with the enduring pride of being a class act.

I had an awesome personal rejection from an agent who was way out of my league - I emailed him back to thank him for his kind comments

Splendad said:

Thank you for your good offer to let us consider your work. We must decline, but do so wishing you best luck in finding the right agent, or better yet, a publisher.
http://www.scotttreimelny.com/

Click to expand...

Is it me or does this read a little like some of those Nigerian money scam emails that float around every so often?

Thank you for your good offer, wishing you best luck... I dunno. Maybe it's just me

No, it's just a polite form rejection. I had one of those. It's meaningless.

I just thought, "oh well" and moved on. If the agent didn't like my style, they were the wrong agent for me. Plenty more fish in the sea - and some are biting

Paul J Andrew said:

Is it me or does this read a little like some of those Nigerian money scam emails that float around every so often?

Click to expand...

You know things are bad when you're getting rejected by Nigerian money scams.

Anne Lyle said:

No, it's just a polite form rejection. I had one of those. It's meaningless.

I just thought, "oh well" and moved on. If the agent didn't like my style, they were the wrong agent for me. Plenty more fish in the sea - and some are biting

Click to expand...

I didn't mean to imply it was anything other than that, just that it read a little goofy to me.

Paul J Andrew said:

I didn't mean to imply it was anything other than that, just that it read a little goofy to me.

Click to expand...

The particular example you quoted was rather clumsy English. But in substance, it was much like any other polite form rejection.

I had two rejections after a partial with wonderful comments. Emailed them back right away and thanked them.

John, excellent job on professionalism!

RobJ said:

You know things are bad when you're getting rejected by Nigerian money scams.

Click to expand...

bwahahahahah...

I guess a polite rejection letter is not as bad.

georgeknoechel said:

I guess a polite rejection letter is not as bad.

Click to expand...

George, think of it this way. No rejection letter is bad, because it helps thicken our skin against one of the givens of writing, and it also moves us closer to finding an agent who is really excited about our work and representing us.

I've always heard* that you shouldn't respond to a form rejection (or really, any rejection except those that encourage revisions and resubmitting in the future), since agents get so many emails and it's just one more they have to open and delete. Is this not what you guys have heard? I'm (admittedly) very new to this process, so I'm still working out all the usual conventions.

*Mostly from agent blogs

LizzieFriend said:

I've always heard* that you shouldn't respond to a form rejection (or really, any rejection except those that encourage revisions and resubmitting in the future), since agents get so many emails and it's just one more they have to open and delete. Is this not what you guys have heard? I'm (admittedly) very new to this process, so I'm still working out all the usual conventions.

*Mostly from agent blogs

Click to expand...

This is my preferred course of action. The only positive outcome to an e-mail conversation like the above is that they might recognize your name in the future -- but I doubt that's enough to make them request a book they're not interested in. Plus, for every agent who responds this kindly, several other agents will be annoyed that you're filling up their inbox.

If you get a particularly fast and/or personalized rejection on a partial or full, it's a different story. Some agents still don't like getting responses to their rejections, but I've also read about plenty of other agents who do appreciate a short, kind word of 'thanks'. So it's up to you at that point.

That makes sense, thanks. I agree that a partial or full read would necessitate a thank you, but a query reject is probably best left alone.

I never respond to a form rejection. What's the point? Editors and agents are busy enough as it is, and no matter how they reply to your reply, nothing changes. You either send them something they think will sell, or you don't.

Jamesaritchie said:

I never respond to a form rejection. What's the point? Editors and agents are busy enough as it is, and no matter how they reply to your reply, nothing changes. You either send them something they think will sell, or you don't.

Click to expand...

This. Plus I've seen agent blogs where they say it doesn't hurt you to reply, but it doesn't help them either because it just makes another email they have to weed through in their endless stack of emails.