"Sorry, we don't accept..." (Rant)

This process of querying/submitting can at times feel incredibly demoralizing. It's such a slog sometimes and you just wonder if it's ever, ever going to amount to anything. Don't let 'em get you down.

That must be soooo annoying. I sympathise. It sounds a bit like my job searching, I have applied for over 200 jobs all of which I am well qualified to do, and have over 30 years experience of, but the "reasons" for not even seeing me are getting more bizzare by the week. I think the best one so far must be "you live in G*****. We don't employ people from G***** because they don't turn up for work in the winter if it's frosty!" You have to laugh or you'd crack up.

That sucks, dude. I've seen a couple of agent sites that are really unclear about genre, so I get what you mean. Hang in, man.

The thing is you read their criteria. It fits your writing and then these fools send it back as if you've make some obvious stupid mistake. What could you be thinking!
It feels very much like a sucker punch. Not a goof sensation when one is smart enough to write a novel.
BTW there are a lot of dumb novels out there but that doesn't translate into dumb writers, just dumb agents and publishers. Not every book you see on the shelves does well.
C

Boy, can I relate to that . I submitted to an agent who accepts thrillers, which is the genre I put my novel under. I got a rejection and a suggestion that I submit to somone who deals with commercial fiction. Soooo I submitted to an agent who accepts commercial fcition and you guess it- He suggested I submit to someone who deals in Thrillers

I think I'm going to become an agent so that I can help my AW friends and rep myself .

seun said:

This has REALLY pissed me off and although it will do no good, I still have to post this.

I'm in the middle of the soul-crushing shit hole that is submitting to agents. I find one who sounds promising, I check them out and see on their site that they're willing to read all kinds of fiction. So I submit the opening chapters of a fantasy novel.

And I get back:

"Sorry, we don't accept Fantasy."

So why the fuck say on your site that you look at all fiction? What a waste of time. Like I've got nothing better to do than submit to people who aren't only going to reject me, but they're going to reject me because I'm apparently too much of a thicko to know they don't read my subject.

OK. Rant over. For now.

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If you're dealing with UK agents, you know you can phone most of them and ask if it is something they would be interested in seeing.
Don't do this with US agents

The response that gets me is the all too overused "not a good fit." I can deal with the writing not being up to par, or it's not right for us at this time, but when you're submitting to an agent who you know has repped books in the same genre as yours, please explain to me what about my work doesn't seem to fit your narrow ass concept of what you will or won't work with.

There, now I feel better too.

A writer friend has often ranted to me about not only the rejection side of all this but also the hoops many agents put you through just to approach them. These have been discussed in AW to a fine point so I'll not enumerate them.
The excuse I've so often read about the abruptness, off handedness and sometimes dead silence is that agents and their staff, if any, are so busy, they're simply rushed off their feet. Oh, poor babies. I worked for 37 years in a research laboratory. To paraphrase a famous line, I had to get it right or people could literally die. No one asked or cared if I was busy.
C

Come on. Everyone knows fantasy isn't proper writing. You can hardly blame them for rejecting you.
And anyway, they said they *read* all kinds of fiction, not that they *accept* all kinds.

Well I called the agencies in the UK before sending out my stuff. Many of the listings didn't have names to whom I should address my packages. So I called them and asked. Very short. Though there was one agency where the secretary put me through to the agent, and he asked what I wrote. After I said Children's, and he said he didn't represent that, I said, "Well okay, I guess never mind then!" and I laughed. He laughed too, was really sweet, and that was that.

I don't know how it is in the US, but it seemed as long as it was obvious I was being professional and to the point: "I'm calling to know to whom I should address my submission", no one seemed to mind.

seun said:

Hmm...I'm a little doubtful about that. I've read plenty of agent blurbs that said no phone calls, no emails etc.

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Well those that say that, you don't call. The others you can

duplicate

seun said:

This has REALLY pissed me off and although it will do no good, I still have to post this.

I'm in the middle of the soul-crushing shit hole that is submitting to agents. I find one who sounds promising, I check them out and see on their site that they're willing to read all kinds of fiction. So I submit the opening chapters of a fantasy novel.

And I get back:

"Sorry, we don't accept Fantasy."

So why the fuck say on your site that you look at all fiction? What a waste of time. Like I've got nothing better to do than submit to people who aren't only going to reject me, but they're going to reject me because I'm apparently too much of a thicko to know they don't read my subject.

OK. Rant over. For now.

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What did you learn from the moral of the story?

Fantasy is very big with the film industry at the moment. My advice is to look for a film agent that also does books. The film industry are buying fantasy book outlines at the moment before the book is completed. You could also contact the film studios directly. However, make sure you copyright your idea and film plot.

Sophia

Seems rather unprofessional for their site to not be more specific, and to assume that writers submitting their MS will know that "all fiction" doesn't really mean ALL fiction. :/

Maryn said:

seun, anybody's who's submitted, all hopeful and puppy-eyed, has been there. I submitted my first novel, which opens with a rape, and received a rejection from one place because they don't do children's books. Say what? The very next rejection was because they only did fiction. Sheesh.

I rationalized that if they ran the offices that badly, they'd be hard to work with anyway.

Maryn, all about sour grapes

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Oh wow. Yeah, not good agents if they give you feedback like that! You're right - you're better off without them.

I recently pitched to a whole bunch of agents at a pitch fest, and while it was actually kind of fun, it was also a good learning experience.

One such interesting lesson: A top agency had more than one agent hearing pitches. I was pleased to see that among them was an agent I'd set my sights on awhile ago and had researched. Said agent also represented a bunch of newbies I'd become somewhat acquainted with, so I thought this person would be a great fit. Targeting this person as my first pitch, I eagerly waited in line, and when I finally got my chance, my eagerness turned to disappointment. Condescending, borderline rude, and very dismissive. Ok, this person is an agent, I say to myself, but if you volunteer to do something like this which can only be to your benefit, leave the ego at the door. I gave my pitch, and was told that paranormal (my genre) was dead unless it had sex and vampires and werewolves, so that pretty much shot all my pitches full of holes.

I was reluctant to approach anyone else after that, mostly my fault since I'd been so looking forward to pitching to this person. Luckily for my fragile psyche, an author friend who was there to check out the fun and games shoved me at another agent and said, try again! This agent worked for the same agency so of course my answer was 'no way'!!! The author friend gave me a metaphorical swift kick in the behind and I did as directed. I had barely begun my pitch when agent #2 stopped me. My heart sunk like a stone, so it took me a few seconds to realize what the agent said: "Wow, paranormal is hot and I love your premise! How soon can you send me the first 50 pages?"

It went uphill from there, the only naysayer declining because they don't represent paranormal of any kind.

Not quite the same issue as your rant, but I thought I'd share! So hang in there seun, the hunt is frustrating but the payoff will be awesome!

I'm trapped in a vortex of this. I'm submitting only to people who say they rep sci fi AND suspense. I've had rejections that said, "this is too sci fi for me" and rejections that said, "this isn't sci fi enough for me." Shite. I'm sci fi lukewarm and sci fi Jesus is going to spit me out.

Just had this happen to me! Bonehead said she didn't rep my genre, and told me to re-query her freaking business partner! Does she not know how to forward a freaking email?

Sophia2 said:

make sure you copyright your idea and film plot.

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You can't copyright an idea.

You can copyright your outline, but not the idea itself.