The Daily Rejection

JEQ · Apr 11, 2011

Received Rejection #13 today, snail mail-style. Ever notice that rejection letters always seem to include the words "however" or "although?" The one today made use of the word "although." A promising admission on the part of the rejector was simultaneously tempered by the brilliant use of the word in question. "Although we found your idea interesting ..." began the second paragraph in this abrupt correspondence, a revelation I immediately contrued as something tantamount to a beautiful woman telling me she finds me attractive, but that she's already engaged to another guy. The use of "although" actually deemed the balance of the sentence unnecessary. "... I am afraid we are unable to offer you representation," the sentence ended. Now, I ask you, was the remainder of the sentence overkill? Would I have understood where this thing was heading had the agent simply ended this particular paragraph at the word "interesting ..."?

And another thing ... I have also realized that many of these letters make heavy use of the word "afraid." Why, I submit, would an agent be "afraid" that she can't offer representation? If an agent is "afraid" that she is unable to offer representation, then why not offer representation instead? If I was afraid of jumping off a diving board, I wouldn't do it. If I was afraid of reading a Stephen King novel, I wouldn't do it. With that in mind, if I was an agent who was afraid that I could not offer representation to somebody, I'd offer representation.

Drachen Jager · Apr 11, 2011

Nothing but crickets for me, so I decided to enter a YA contest today. (the blog is Love YA if anyone else is interested, contest closes midnight eastern)

LisaAnn · Apr 11, 2011

Got my fastest rejection ever today! Hit "send," and in the space of time it took me to refresh my mailbox, the agent had already rejected me... Yikes!

I take a little solace in the fact that there's NO way she could have read the entire query in such a short time frame. Therefore, I must have picked a subject she's not interested in or is tired of reading... (Takes a LITTLE BIT of the sting away, at least...)

Sydneyd · Apr 11, 2011

JEQ said:
Received Rejection #13 today, snail mail-style. Ever notice that rejection letters always seem to include the words "however" or "although?" The one today made use of the word "although." A promising admission on the part of the rejector was simultaneously tempered by the brilliant use of the word in question. "Although we found your idea interesting ..." began the second paragraph in this abrupt correspondence, a revelation I immediately contrued as something tantamount to a beautiful woman telling me she finds me attractive, but that she's already engaged to another guy. The use of "although" actually deemed the balance of the sentence unnecessary. "... I am afraid we are unable to offer you representation," the sentence ended. Now, I ask you, was the remainder of the sentence overkill? Would I have understood where this thing was heading had the agent simply ended this particular paragraph at the word "interesting ..."?

And another thing ... I have also realized that many of these letters make heavy use of the word "afraid." Why, I submit, would an agent be "afraid" that she can't offer representation? If an agent is "afraid" that she is unable to offer representation, then why not offer representation instead? If I was afraid of jumping off a diving board, I wouldn't do it. If I was afraid of reading a Stephen King novel, I wouldn't do it. With that in mind, if I was an agent who was afraid that I could not offer representation to somebody, I'd offer representation.

I am so with you. I also know it is a reject when the response begins with ,"Thank you!" I find I am only thanked when I am rejected.

JEQ · Apr 11, 2011

Sydneyd said:
I am so with you. I also know it is a reject when the response begins with ,"Thank you!" I find I am only thanked when I am rejected.

That's very funny because the letter I am talking about began with a "Thank you."

The last paragraph started with ... drum roll please ... an "I appreciate ..."

Sydneyd · Apr 11, 2011

JEQ said:
That's very funny because the letter I am talking about began with a "Thank you."

The last paragraph started with ... drum roll please ... an "I appreciate ..."

Thank you...

Although...

I appreciate...

However...

All the same. We are on to you!!

Drachen Jager · Apr 11, 2011

Sydneyd said:
I am so with you. I also know it is a reject when the response begins with ,"Thank you!" I find I am only thanked when I am rejected.

I actually came a hair's breadth from closing an e-mail in disgust once because it was so short and started with, "Thank you". I figured it had to be a rejection. It read, "Thank you, for your query, I'd love to see the first 25 pages."

Not that it panned out.

JEQ · Apr 12, 2011

Nothing here except for us crickets.

Snappy · Apr 12, 2011

LisaAnn said:
Got my fastest rejection ever today! Hit "send," and in the space of time it took me to refresh my mailbox, the agent had already rejected me... Yikes!

I take a little solace in the fact that there's NO way she could have read the entire query in such a short time frame. Therefore, I must have picked a subject she's not interested in or is tired of reading... (Takes a LITTLE BIT of the sting away, at least...)

Are you sure the agent wasn't closed to queries? Fastest R for me was 11 minutes. I queried an agent that wasn't taking my genre.

Carrie-Anne · Apr 12, 2011

I received my dozenth rejection today, and if I don't hear back from another agency by the end of today (the two-week mark since I queried), I'll know I have 13. Later this week makes 8 weeks since I queried two others whose policy seems to be "no response means now," so that might put it up to 15.

Phil_Hall · Apr 12, 2011

You guys with your positive attitude really make me feel like I still have a chance. Thank you for that. Seriously. Thanks.

I just got rejection #26. Still not too shabby...

JEQ · Apr 12, 2011

Well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I do have a full out there that was sent 11 days ago, and there are more queries I'm waiting to hear back from. If Drachen Jager is right, however, the full will be rejected, and none of the other queries will pan out and I'll be back to Square One. Hopefully, that will not be the case. Hopefully, I'll soon be issuing a report to everyone on here not only about securing an agent, but also landing a top tier publisher, as well as a seven-figure movie deal from a big Hollywood production company interested in transforming my epic into a blockbuster motion picture slated for release a week after the book hits the shelf! Is that too lofty a goal?

Uh oh ... I think I've just reached the next level of madness - dreams of grandeur.

Carleree · Apr 12, 2011

Rejection number four just graced my inbox. *sigh* If my RL wasn't spinning out of control I'd send out some more queries.

LisaAnn · Apr 12, 2011

Its2Snappy said:
Are you sure the agent wasn't closed to queries? Fastest R for me was 11 minutes. I queried an agent that wasn't taking my genre.

Hahaha, I WISH I could use that as an excuse... Nope, nothing but me to blame for this one...

Carleree · Apr 12, 2011

I had an epiphany. I think I'm marketing my book in the wrong genre. That could totally change my game. Query round #2 is looking a whole lot closer.

Nova Odyssey · Apr 12, 2011

JEQ said:
Well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. I do have a full out there that was sent 11 days ago, and there are more queries I'm waiting to hear back from. If Drachen Jager is right, however, the full will be rejected, and none of the other queries will pan out and I'll be back to Square One. Hopefully, that will not be the case. .

Take what you hear in this forum with a grain of salt- or at least listen to a lot of reasonable voices and not only one. Nobody has the perfect equation in figuring out when a full will become an offer- there are many stories here where full does become an offer after many "cold" rejects. That said, of course we can all speculate and it's always a good idea to see if your work needs review (or not, or a break, etc) after a good number of rejects for all the reasons mentioned. But remember, don't go too crazy!

Nova Odyssey · Apr 12, 2011

Carleree said:
I had an epiphany. I think I'm marketing my book in the wrong genre. That could totally change my game. Query round #2 is looking a whole lot closer.

Oh that's great! I too wonder if the genre might throw off some agents (it can affect how it's pitched in a query).

Sydneyd · Apr 12, 2011

I had less of an epiphany and more of a kick in the face. A very smart person said, your book isn't what you say it is. I took a step back and realized, huh.

Drachen Jager · Apr 12, 2011

Nova Odyssey said:
Take what you hear in this forum with a grain of salt- or at least listen to a lot of reasonable voices and not only one. Nobody has the perfect equation in figuring out when a full will become an offer- there are many stories here where full does become an offer after many "cold" rejects. That said, of course we can all speculate and it's always a good idea to see if your work needs review (or not, or a break, etc) after a good number of rejects for all the reasons mentioned. But remember, don't go too crazy!

For the record I did not tell him it was certain to be rejected. I said it was likely.

The record for cold fulls going on to revisions or an offer is about 1 in 10, add to that the fact that it's the only request and the odds get worse.

Carleree · Apr 12, 2011

Nova Odyssey said:
Oh that's great! I too wonder if the genre might throw off some agents (it can affect how it's pitched in a query).

well it would certainly change which agents I'm looking at. I think it could make all the difference.

JEQ · Apr 12, 2011

Drachen Jager said:
For the record I did not tell him it was certain to be rejected. I said it was likely.

The record for cold fulls going on to revisions or an offer is about 1 in 10, add to that the fact that it's the only request and the odds get worse.

Okay ... if the odds are 1 in 10 for a cold full to be picked up, and there was only one request to read the full, then that means my only hope is that the agent who requested the full just happens to be that special one out of a potential 10 agents who is interested in my novel.

Of course, the problem here is that I would need nine more agents to request to read the full in order to up my chances. Which brings us back to the one agent who did request the full. Is he the one who will provide the call?

Now, if you divide E=MC2 by the binomial theorum, multiply the result by Element 119, and then subtract that figure from The Triangle Inequality, the answer, of course, is the square root of an isosceles trapezoid.

The bottom line is, as we all know, anything is possible in this crazy universe. Drachen Jager is absolutely correct in that, as it stands, my chances are slim. And Nova Odyssey is also correct in that anything can happen. Only time will tell.

Cyrusthevirus · Apr 12, 2011

It is often so hard to choose one genre. Mine could be horror, thriller, womens, etc....I started with horror and had instant rejections. Changed my genre to thriller and caught a few nibbles. But I've still not caught anything to write home about.

Drachen Jager · Apr 12, 2011

JEQ said:
Okay ... if the odds are 1 in 10 for a cold full to be picked up, and there was only one request to read the full, then that means my only hope is that the agent who requested the full just happens to be that special one out of a potential 10 agents who is interested in my novel.

Your math is backwards. It's not one agent in ten who will accept the manuscript, it's one manuscript in ten that will pull the agent in. The right manuscript will likely get requests from all ten agents. The wrong nine manuscripts probably won't get any.

JEQ said:
Of course, the problem here is that I would need nine more agents to request to read the full in order to up my chances. Which brings us back to the one agent who did request the full. Is he the one who will provide the call?

It's not a numbers game. The wrong manuscript will strike out 100 times out of 100. The right manuscript will be a hit 90 times in 100. A borderline manuscript might pick up 10 in 100.

All I was trying to say is make sure your manuscript is the best it can be before you burn bridges. Get the query and first chapter in SYW and find a good beta reader if you can.

JEQ · Apr 12, 2011

Drachen Jager said:
Get the query and first chapter in SYW and find a good beta reader if you can.

I have stopped sending out queries, and I do have two more editors reading the manuscript right now. Before I begin sending out more queries, I'm going to wait to hear what my beta readers have to say. I do not believe the query, however, is the problem. I've showed that to a number of people who thought it was excellent. The agent who called and requested the manuscript said he found the query highly entertaining. Outside of that, however, I received 13 rejections out of 38 queries so far. I suspect that at least half of the 24 who I've heard nothing from so far will never get back to me, and I'm certain to receive more rejections. It would be nice to get at least two more requests for fulls. Then I'd at least feel like I have a fighting chance in this go around. If not, it's back to the old drawing board.

Sydneyd · Apr 12, 2011

JEQ said:
Okay ... if the odds are 1 in 10 for a cold full to be picked up, and there was only one request to read the full, then that means my only hope is that the agent who requested the full just happens to be that special one out of a potential 10 agents who is interested in my novel.

Of course, the problem here is that I would need nine more agents to request to read the full in order to up my chances. Which brings us back to the one agent who did request the full. Is he the one who will provide the call?

Now, if you divide E=MC2 by the binomial theorum, multiply the result by Element 119, and then subtract that figure from The Triangle Inequality, the answer, of course, is the square root of an isosceles trapezoid.

The bottom line is, as we all know, anything is possible in this crazy universe. Drachen Jager is absolutely correct in that, as it stands, my chances are slim. And Nova Odyssey is also correct in that anything can happen. Only time will tell.

Math. I hate math. But I like going against the odds. And, truth be told, none of us have very good odds do we? We can hope, and do our best.

The Daily Rejection

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