Reply to a rejection with a nice note? Or simply let it rest there?

Derimed said:

Hi there,

I got a stock rejection from an agent I queried. It was a stock rejection, but as nice as something like that could be, and the agent is super famous so I am not surprised. To be honest, I've been paralyzed with fear of querying to the point of inertia, and this helped a bit because he encouraged me to keep trying with other agents.

Is it okay to reply with a nice note thanking him for his consideration? Or is that not a good idea because it'll spam up his already spammed-up inbox and he probably doesn't care about an applicant he declined?

Many thanks!

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It's usually not advised. (By 'stock rejection' do you mean a form rejection? In that case it's really not advised - though it won't hurt anyone. It's more that if everyone does that, his email gets swamped.)

But good on you for finishing and polishing and subbing, and good luck on your journey.

Derimed said:

Thanks!

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Mind you, I'm only quoting what I've read here on AW. Hang around for a while and see what the consensus is. I'm just one dear little voice in the wilderness killing time while my dinner cooks...

If they gave you detailed feedback on why they didn't pick the story up, and how you might fix it, then personally I would send them a quick thank you note. If it was a form rejection or a quick 'X didn't work for me, sorry.' Then I wouldn't clutter up their inbox with it.

First, well done for querying! It's hard and scary and everything in-between. As for polite replies to basic form rejections, for me this depended on whether the agent invited me to query in future. (And on whether the moon was full when I received the form pass). I'm terribly old school-maybe it's an age thing-but I did respond to most such rejections with a brief 'thank you for your time, I'll be sure to query you in future'. Or similar. If I received a personalised rejection, or had feedback, I always responded to thank them. NOTE: Never to ask for more info, or say things like 'so if I fix this will you re-consider? No. Just...don't do it.

Polite thank yous probably clutter up agents' in-boxes, but I don't really care. Doing it made me feel better and closed off that query to my satisfaction, so when the moon was full...