The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

Harlequin · Jan 20, 2018

Grats Jeanie! Do you still want the beta'ing to go ahead or better for me to hold off?

And ty JJ

yeah my previous submissions to them garnered forms. I think I'm gradually getting a sense of what the different places like.

rocoroca · Jan 20, 2018

Congrats, JeanGenie! That's one hell of an agent to get a request from!

I recently heard from one of the agents with my full that she's just started reading my manuscript. I haven't heard anything back from her since, and I am SO nervous, even though I'm trying to tell myself it's out of my hands and there's no point thinking too much about it. I'm keeping my hopes low, so all I'm really wishing to get out of this is a helpful, personalised rejection from her so I know how to improve my story further.

JeanGenie · Jan 20, 2018

Thank you, all! It’s only a partial, so trying to curb my enthusiasm here, but a lot nicer than a form rejection!

Harlequin said:
Grats Jeanie! Do you still want the beta'ing to go ahead or better for me to hold off?

With regards to this “just” being a partial, I’m going to act like everything is normal, so follow the plan

Tchaikovsky · Jan 20, 2018

Congrats JeanGenie, Writers House is my absolute top agency (right after Curtis Brown).

I am close to being back on the query trenches again. This is probably my favorite work to date. This time instead of jumping the gun, I'm holding off and pouring all my energy into making sure the MS is near perfection. But that raises the stakes a lot, because if I get a rejection, I'm scared I'll take it that much more personally

I need to detach myself from the whole process.

JeanGenie · Jan 21, 2018

rocoroca said:
Congrats, JeanGenie! That's one hell of an agent to get a request from!

I recently heard from one of the agents with my full that she's just started reading my manuscript. I haven't heard anything back from her since, and I am SO nervous, even though I'm trying to tell myself it's out of my hands and there's no point thinking too much about it. I'm keeping my hopes low, so all I'm really wishing to get out of this is a helpful, personalised rejection from her so I know how to improve my story further.

Thanks! It’s so difficult to keep your hopes low. I’m already having Writers House dinners with Neil Gaiman and Laurell Hamilton in my head. Stop, brain. Stop!

It was nice of her to tell you that she’s started reading - do many of them keep you posted like that?

sockycat · Jan 21, 2018

Tchaikovsky said:
I am close to being back on the query trenches again. This is probably my favorite work to date. This time instead of jumping the gun, I'm holding off and pouring all my energy into making sure the MS is near perfection. But that raises the stakes a lot, because if I get a rejection, I'm scared I'll take it that much more personally

I need to detach myself from the whole process.

Starting something new helps a ton. I'm planning on jumping into the trenches around March once I finish this new round of revisions, but I've already started tentatively brainstorming a new story in my head. Getting excited about a different makes detaching from the one floundering in the query trenches way, way easier.

rocoroca · Jan 21, 2018

JeanGenie said:
Thanks! It’s so difficult to keep your hopes low. I’m already having Writers House dinners with Neil Gaiman and Laurell Hamilton in my head. Stop, brain. Stop!

It was nice of her to tell you that she’s started reading - do many of them keep you posted like that?

Haha! I know the feeling. I've a bad habit of imagining my name on the NYT Bestselling list, which doesn't mesh well with all the rejections sitting in my inbox

.

No, most agents don't update like that, as far as I know. This agent only informed me because she was also checking if the manuscript was still available and I haven't accepted representation elsewhere. But I imagine some agents do update, just few and far between.

JeanGenie · Jan 22, 2018

rocoroca said:
Haha! I know the feeling. I've a bad habit of imagining my name on the NYT Bestselling list, which doesn't mesh well with all the rejections sitting in my inbox .

No, most agents don't update like that, as far as I know. This agent only informed me because she was also checking if the manuscript was still available and I haven't accepted representation elsewhere. But I imagine some agents do update, just few and far between.

Ah, a NYT bestseller, I haven’t tried that fantasy before, but now I probably will X-D

CameronJohnston · Jan 22, 2018

JeanGenie said:
Thanks! It’s so difficult to keep your hopes low. I’m already having Writers House dinners with Neil Gaiman and Laurell Hamilton in my head. Stop, brain. Stop!

It's impossible to keep your hopes low when something this good happens

However realistic you try to be, you can't help the day dreams of what might happen!

rocoroca · Jan 22, 2018

JeanGenie said:
Ah, a NYT bestseller, I haven’t tried that fantasy before, but now I probably will X-D

Uh oh, looks like I've infected you with my delusional optimism!

JeanGenie · Jan 22, 2018

rocoroca said:
Uh oh, looks like I've infected you with my delusional optimism!

I suspect dreaming and longing is better than actually reaching all of your goals, so no worries

Taylor Harbin · Jan 23, 2018

Got a rejection from Nature Futures. It said they really enjoyed the story, which is what they said last time about a different piece. Have I struck upon a type of form letter? I really thought they'd go for that one.

mafiaking1936 · Jan 24, 2018

...and a form reject on my partial request. Why? Who knows. It's a secret, and no one will tell me.

rocoroca · Jan 24, 2018

mafiaking1936 said:
...and a form reject on my partial request. Why? Who knows. It's a secret, and no one will tell me.

Hang in there! It sucks when they only give a form rejection to a request (partial or full), but it seems to be inevitable. Chalk it up to subjective taste and carry on!

JJ Litke · Jan 25, 2018

mafiaking1936 said:
...and a form reject on my partial request. Why? Who knows. It's a secret, and no one will tell me.

It's not an agent's responsibility to tell you that. You gotta ask the right people if you want an answer. What do your beta readers or CPs say? Have you posted for feedback in SYW? Have you workshopped it? How is the genre/subgenre for your manuscript doing in the market right now, is it slow? If it's a hard sell market at the moment, then your manuscript needs to be not just good enough but amazing to be able to break out.

Getting a partial request shows you're doing something right, though. You aren't doing as bad as you may think.

JeanGenie · Jan 25, 2018

My partial is upgraded to a full, which I'm going to send out tonight, and on that note I'm wondering if agents give personalized feedback on fulls more often than not?

JJ Litke · Jan 25, 2018

Congrats, JeanGenie! :banana:

I don't know of any statistics about how often agents give feedback on full Rs. It's definitely more common than personal Rs on queries, but I think there's still a high rate of forms. Maybe someone who's had a lot of full requests could answer?

CameronJohnston · Jan 25, 2018

It's...variable. Way more likely you might at least get a line or two of the reasons why they rejected it in my experience.

JeanGenie · Jan 25, 2018

CameronJohnston said:
It's...variable. Way more likely you might at least get a line or two of the reasons why they rejected it in my experience.

So if they say: the story is interesting and well written, but not for us, I would assume that's a standard rejection? But not if they are more specific?

Shoeless · Jan 25, 2018

JeanGenie said:
So if they say: the story is interesting and well written, but not for us, I would assume that's a standard rejection? But not if they are more specific?

Yeah, that's usually more of a form rejection.

If they do respond with comments, they'll usually go into some specifics, but don't expect a big, personalized break down. On past rejections for full-requests on other books, I've gotten all kinds of feedback, like "Writing is strong, but second half structure is too problematic," or, "World building concept is good, but I wanted the book to represent this aspect of it much more." They'll spend some time telling you what didn't work, but they won't go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about it, unless you were a really near miss, in which case, they might expound with much more detail, and probably also ask to you keep submitting in the future, if they're not outright asking for a revise & resubmit.

JeanGenie · Jan 25, 2018

Shoeless said:
Yeah, that's usually more of a form rejection.

If they do respond with comments, they'll usually go into some specifics, but don't expect a big, personalized break down. On past rejections for full-requests on other books, I've gotten all kinds of feedback, like "Writing is strong, but second half structure is too problematic," or, "World building concept is good, but I wanted the book to represent this aspect of it much more." They'll spend some time telling you what didn't work, but they won't go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about it, unless you were a really near miss, in which case, they might expound with much more detail, and probably also ask to you keep submitting in the future, if they're not outright asking for a revise & resubmit.

Thanks for the answer! I'm going to hope for R&R, but expect FR.

chracatoa · Jan 29, 2018

I follow my queries using an external site, and often people that submitted after me already have received their FRs (a lucky few may even had requests).
So the agents are either still thinking about it, or, most likely, my query was left behind for other reasons (maybe due to the sheer number of queries).

Here's an example (yellow is me).

On the plus side, I'm not doing so bad this year. I got one partial and one full request. Although this is still far below the 10% request rate that the average author gets, I can't help but be happy about it even if I get rejections on them.

JeanGenie · Jan 29, 2018

That’s query tracker, yes, and I’m glued to those timelines as well

sockycat · Jan 29, 2018

*sneaks in* I have a tiny bit of good news. My first pro sale went live this month over at Flash Fiction Online, and today my twitter notifications blew up when I learned my story was among ten selected for a feature over at Barnes & Noble. *faints*

JJ Litke · Jan 29, 2018

Wow, sockycat, that's awesome! :TheWave:

And I love your story.

The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

Eat books, not brains!

Such a Greenie

Such a Greenie

Such a Greenie

Great Old One

Such a Greenie

Power to the pen!

Nihil debetur. Nihil debens.

People are not wearing enough hats

Such a Greenie

People are not wearing enough hats

Great Old One

Such a Greenie

Such a Greenie

COG: Sometimes, Heaven is Overrated

Such a Greenie

People are not wearing enough hats