Form Letter V. Nothing At All?

MatthewHJonesAuthor

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Hey, Awers.

For all of us, I think that the Ideal is a glowing acceptance letter, but that isn't always possible.

I've been submission my novel around and I've been encountering a lot of 'If We Don't Contact You In 2-3 Weeks, Assume We've Passed.'

Any agent that has the time to give you a detailed letter spelling out exactly why they're not interested probably aren't paying much attention to the authors on their list, so I've always been fine with Form Letters. The 'Only Respond to the Authors We're Interested In' should be the logical extension to the Form Letter, but I've always felt like it left things uncomfortable open-ended. It's obviously over. Pack up your things and head home. I know that, but the Form letter always cemented the fact for me. Does anyone else feel this way?
 

Aggy B.

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It is kind of uncomfortable never hearing back from an agent. I always wonder if they just didn't like the query or if Teh Interwebs somehow ate my email. (Naturally, I'm tempted to assume the latter every time.)

On the other hand, the big agents are receiving dozens if not hundreds of queries every week. Responding with even a form rejection to that kind of volume is obviously difficult.

So, I don't know. I understand the "why" of the "no response = no", but it is a bit frustrating.

Aggy, who tends to wait six months and then query again just to make sure it wasn't the Interwebs monster eating her delicious query
 

Aislinn

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I agree with you, Matthew. I would much rather have a form letter. Call it completion or closure or whatever you will, a non-response doesn't quite provide that sense that the particular avenue for publication is closed.

This hasn't happened to me yet with a market I really have my heart set on, but I can imagine that would be especially uncomfortable.

I would have thought a rejection system would be useful at a publishing house or agent's office - a simple way of finalising each submission and making sure nothing fell through the cracks.

And this is without even going into questions of respect and how we (editors and authors) ought to treat one another. I could go on and on ;-)
 

katci13

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I would much rather get an email saying they've received my email. Most agents don't do that. The form letter is how I know my query isn't stuck in a cyberspace or a spam filter. Waiting sucks, but at least if I know they got it, I can move on after 3 weeks. (Because I'm just pessimistic like that.)

My thing is, if they don't have time to send a form (or set up an automatic received email receipt - which I prefer), then they shouldn't ask for queries because they obviously don't have time to read them. It's less agents for me to research anyway (which is horribly time consuming, I much rather be doing anything else.)
 

Fruitbat

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It doesn't matter how they serve my rejections. I don't like any of them. :(
 
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Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I get a nice glow from form rejections; at least courtesy does still exist. That said, I'm okay with no response as long as there's either an automatic receipt for the query or there's a statement on the website stating how long to wait for the No Response.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

dachshund

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Either way, unless they're crazy enough to not allow simultaneous subs while not sending responses. Trying to follow everyone's suggestions on personal rejects hasn't gotten me anywhere, so I just stick to what I feel comfortable with, sink or swim. I generally can see enough in the email top line blurb to know it's a kick and delete them. 'Unfortunately,' 'Just isn't' etc etc.
 
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fihr

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It's all about practicality, and managing submissions. For any story I much prefer getting a form letter to nothing at all, and if they want me to assume rejection after a certain time, then an automatic response to show receipt of my story is great.

Even if they accept sim subs, an auto response at least is good, because it lets me know if I have the freedom to send my work somewhere that doesn't take sim subs.

I would think an auto response could be set up by everyone these days, as a minimum, even if they don't want to send forms. Publishers that respond professionally (ie: have a good system worked out) make me more interested in sending them future work.

I have one story in a black hole at the moment (but a black hole I'd love to get accepted by), and all I can eventually go off to guess rejection if they don't send a form, is the intended publishing date of their anthology.
 

Eliza C

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I agree with you, Matthew. I would much rather have a form letter. Call it completion or closure or whatever you will, a non-response doesn't quite provide that sense that the particular avenue for publication is closed.

This hasn't happened to me yet with a market I really have my heart set on, but I can imagine that would be especially uncomfortable.

I would have thought a rejection system would be useful at a publishing house or agent's office - a simple way of finalising each submission and making sure nothing fell through the cracks.

And this is without even going into questions of respect and how we (editors and authors) ought to treat one another. I could go on and on ;-)

What Aislinn said.