Is my project ruined?

Manudurand said:

A year ago I made the amateur mistake of querying like +100 agents without editing my manuscript and of course all of them ended with rejections, does that mean they will no longer accept my novel even if it is polished? should I wait for like another year and change the title of my novel?

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I'm confused. What would editing the manuscript have to do with rejections to the query? Did people request the ms. then reject it?

You've likely burned those agents unless you completely overhaul the plot -- not just polish it, but change such major and so many elements that it's fairly unrecognizable to people who read both versions.

Did you send the actual manuscript (unrequested) to these Agents with perhaps a covering few words - and not what we generally accept as a real Query Letter on its own?

If you did, from what you say I doubt many would have read much beyond a page or two.

Manudurand said:

A year ago I made the amateur mistake of querying like +100 agents without editing my manuscript and of course all of them ended with rejections, does that mean they will no longer accept my novel even if it is polished? should I wait for like another year and change the title of my novel?

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I am in a similar situation. I would suggest spending significant time revising, finding beta readers, getting feedback. By now I've spent more time revising than it took to write the first draft and I'm fairly embarrassed at the product I first queried with. Now I've got four or five full requests out, but only after more than 200 failed queries. No one's project is as good as they think it is initially. Make it better, then rejigger the first few chapters or so so it's fairly unrecognizable at first glance, maybe change the title, then requery. They might not remember since they get so many. Wouldn't hurt to use a different email address too, in case they have a database for flagging past submissions.

If it's been a year, they've probably forgot. If you've polished it and feel good about it, rewrite the query and send it back out.

The worst they can do is another rejection, They can't put you in jail or hurt your children or pets. They get too many queries to remember most of what they pass on. And again, even if they do, the worst they can do is say no or say nothing, and that's not a different place from where you are right now.

Start a second project.

Not because your first project is necessarily dead--if you've only sent a query letter, it may be possible to re-query, plus there are new agents pop up fairly frequently--but because it'll make you a better writer and give you more irons in the fire.

It's very common for a first project not to sell. It's also very common to rush that first project. This is why so many authors debut with their fourth, fifth, or seventh manuscripts.

Don't get sucked into a vortex polishing and polishing a MS with diminishing chances. Query it when and where it makes sense, and spend the bulk of your time writing another. Then be a bit more careful about polishing that one first (workshops, beta-readers, etc.) and you never know: an agent or publisher that likes #2 might all of a sudden be a lot more interested in a more-polished #1. Those are conversations it's far easier to have when you already have a foot in the door.

Very, very few writers can sell a work they haven't done multiple drafts of, editing it to the best it can be. And most of those are authors with a specific credential or audience, such as "I'm the girl who slept with the President and the Prime Minister and caused both of them be removed from office..."

But many authors sell works without paying for an editor to go through them (I'm partly on the side of this being a scam in the making, if you can't edit your own work well enough to be accepted by an agent you're probably not ready to submit yet...). So it really depends on what you mean here. And, if you sent your work to 100 agents with absolutely no responses, you need to rethink your submission process to target the agents who want to see your work.

After a year of no responses, querying again is likely fine. But don't send the same work to the same people and expect a new outcome.

Jeff

I wouldn't worry. In my hunt for agents I found a combination of 500 publishers and agents I could approach for my fantasy work. Many of them have posts complaining about the hundreds or thousands of emails they get per day or week. I'm not trying to be crass, but it's just realistic, that unless you really got their attention, they've forgotten your application by the end of the day. I'm sure I've sent out duplicate applications and I've never once had anyone complain. I would say less than 25% of my applications even get a reply. When I first started writing I would only apply to one agent/publisher at a time because that's what they asked for. I was very scared of "burning" myself. That was 18 years ago. Now, I don't worry at all. But it is important to make sure the agent/publisher is actually interested in your genre.

- Mark Charke

Manudurand said:

A year ago I made the amateur mistake of querying like +100 agents without editing my manuscript and of course all of them ended with rejections, does that mean they will no longer accept my novel even if it is polished? should I wait for like another year and change the title of my novel?

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Hi Manu!
The short answer: NO!! Your story is not ruined. Breathe. Everything is okay.

The long answer:
I've been to conference panels where people ask this question ROUTINELY, and most of the agents say the chances they would remember a query is very small... and some even go so far as to say that if the work has been SUBSTANTIALLY improved, then they're happy to look it over again.

If I were you, I would make DAMN sure that your story isn't just 'polished' but freaking AMAZING (and get a second opinion on that, btw), change the name, and THEN query again.

Post your query here because you will get amazing feedback. The big majority of those 100 agents probably didn't even request your MS because your query probably wasn't very good either. So maybe, what, 10 out of those 100 agents actually saw your writing? Which means you still have 90 agents who probably wouldn't recognize it.

This isn't good practice, btw, and should NOT be considered advice. Just saying what I would do.

whiporee said:

If it's been a year, they've probably forgot. If you've polished it and feel good about it, rewrite the query and send it back out.

The worst they can do is another rejection, They can't put you in jail or hurt your children or pets. They get too many queries to remember most of what they pass on. And again, even if they do, the worst they can do is say no or say nothing, and that's not a different place from where you are right now.

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Agreed. They agents have likely read thousands or tens of thousands of queries in the past year. Change your query, change up the first page or two, and you're good.

Have you had beta readers?