The Daily Rejection, Vol. 2

Got an R on a humor sub, and nothing makes me feel less funny or accomplished than that. Happy Monday you guys!

Collie said:

Got a form R today from an agent I CNRed last night and the timing made me laugh.

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I used QueryTracker and usually just let the system automatically close out the CNRs after their cut-off, a few hundred days had passed. And even then, sometimes I'd STILL get a form rejection 2-3 years after the query had been sent.

I did not know that QT did that. Makes me feel less guilty for not bothering to list every single agent as CNR now >.> I'll just let them fade away lol

rosegold said:

I just received my third rejection. It's disappointing, but it's not nearly as bad as I expected because I told myself this process would be miserable.

I'm guessing it gets worse around...ten?

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If you're feeling OK now, that's good - I think for many people the first few Rs hit hard, as you get all geared up getting your book out into the world, only to be knocked back. 10 is quite hard, because that starts to indicate something being wrong. But it is early days for you!

I'm past 10 rejections, which is why I'm reworking some other things which is an entirely all new form of stress considering I can't seem to nail it.

Marked my last few queries out as CNR. So I think my initial stats for the "first round" is something like 1 full request and 16 form rejections.

I guess for me it was gradual. Somewhere around sixty I started burning out and no longer kept religious track of every rejection. After 100 I didn't keep track at all, hence ~130 is a rough guess.

This is incredibly useful, thank you.

I thought a request at ten or under was considered rare/lucky, which was why I wasn't really bothered by three. Also, I've been querying top agents (which might be stupid), so twenty, at the very least, felt inevitable.

Joeyc - So that's one full in 17? That's about the same as me, so far, though most of my Rs have been personalised. How long have you been waiting on the full? As long as it's out there there is definitely hope!

Rosegold - Rule of thumb is that top agents who have tons of clients may not be looking for new authors even though they advertise that they're taking on submissions, so in a way, a R from them means less than if you got a R from a brand new agent who was list building. So take courage!

Nothing happening on my end and I'm feeling entirely apathetic. I have a plan of a new book that's solid enough for me to make a start on it but still feel entirely meh.

Hi everybody,

I've been lurking on this thread for a while and following all your stories. I figured I should set up camp here because I just sent my first query letter.

Going to reward myself and try to calm down and then maybe send some more.

ValerieJane said:

Hi everybody,

I've been lurking on this thread for a while and following all your stories. I figured I should set up camp here because I just sent my first query letter.

Going to reward myself and try to calm down and then maybe send some more.

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Congratulations on entering the trial by fire. It's just like learning to play the guitar. You bleed at first, and then you toughen up.

RaggyCat said:

Rosegold - Rule of thumb is that top agents who have tons of clients may not be looking for new authors even though they advertise that they're taking on submissions, so in a way, a R from them means less than if you got a R from a brand new agent who was list building. So take courage!

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Thank you so much letting me know. I have a few agents that mentioned list building, but most of them already have several clients.

I'll keep an eye out for newer ones.

I feel weirdly left out about not participating in Pitch Wars this year for some reason. I wonder if I can cheat it and just submit something R.F Kuang and see if she'll make me on as a mentee? I'll only get in trouble if I get picked, and what are the odds of that, right?

Shoeless said:

Congratulations on entering the trial by fire. It's just like learning to play the guitar. You bleed at first, and then you toughen up.

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And then you continue to get frustrated as you hit peaks in your skill level.

I'd say the odds of getting picked for PitchWars normally aren't good (doesn't mean I won't try), but considering you'll only get in trouble if you get picked I'd say the odds of getting picked are about 90%.

ValerieJane said:

Hi everybody,

I've been lurking on this thread for a while and following all your stories. I figured I should set up camp here because I just sent my first query letter.

Going to reward myself and try to calm down and then maybe send some more.

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DOOO IIIITTT.

Do all the Query things! Even if you burn through 150 rejections, youll learn good lessons on perseverance and eventually SUCCESS! If not for this project , one in the future. The rejection rate for the book you never send out is always 100%

Anyway, since this is a rejection thread, got 2 this week, one for a short story I had only submitted an hour prevously (SERIOUSLY an HOUR?!?!?) and one for the manuscript. I wasn’t too fussed about the manuscript one, it was a long shot I didn’t even know my agent had submitted until he told me it was rejected. Editorial rejections are much nicer than agent ones, as they are usually talking to someone they know (the agent) rather than some rando off the Internet (me).

Good luck everyone, waiting to hear good news from you!

Thanks, you guys!

The first rejection is in. It was a very nicely worded form letter that arrived one day after querying, which I thought was pretty quick. It's not so bad. I thought I would feel a lot worse, actually.

Onward!

joeyc said:

but considering you'll only get in trouble if you get picked I'd say the odds of getting picked are about 90%.

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Well... that sounds about right...

Hey ValerieJane, welcome! Congrats on getting that first query out there - taking the plunge is always hard. Let's hope you get some speedy responses!

Sorry about the R, Treehouseman. At least it was the story you weren't too fussed about!

I think for me, after this week, I'm going to need to set myself some deadlines and be strict. I've kind of been sitting around for a month now (literally, as I've one something to me knee so am pretty immobile - just as I was all set to lose the pregnancy weight I'd accrued, WHEE) not writing anything while my MS has been out (one full, three subs waiting on right now), but as nothing seems set to move quickly I need to get writing the next one underway. Problem is, I absolutely hate the starting something new stage. Anyone got any tips? I've got an outline for the new book and am even quite keen on it but so far my attempts to start it have been... not great.

Kinda know how you feel, Shoeless. I was totally gungho for PitchWars last year. Didn't get a mentor but got close, and received some kind/useful feedback.

Here's another weird thought. In a couple years, maybe next year, you yourself might be a mentor, Shoeless... (dun dun dun...)

Harlequin said:

Here's another weird thought. In a couple years, maybe next year, you yourself might be a mentor, Shoeless... (dun dun dun...)

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I don't know whether I've got the ruthlessness in me to waylay another writer's career by inflicting myself on them like that. I'll probably just break down in tears the moment they say, "Thanks for helping me make my book better!" and I'll just have to backtrack with, "Well, keep in mind, help is such a RELATIVE term..."

RaggyCat said:

Hey ValerieJane, welcome! Congrats on getting that first query out there - taking the plunge is always hard. Let's hope you get some speedy responses!

Sorry about the R, Treehouseman. At least it was the story you weren't too fussed about!

I think for me, after this week, I'm going to need to set myself some deadlines and be strict. I've kind of been sitting around for a month now (literally, as I've one something to me knee so am pretty immobile - just as I was all set to lose the pregnancy weight I'd accrued, WHEE) not writing anything while my MS has been out (one full, three subs waiting on right now), but as nothing seems set to move quickly I need to get writing the next one underway. Problem is, I absolutely hate the starting something new stage. Anyone got any tips? I've got an outline for the new book and am even quite keen on it but so far my attempts to start it have been... not great.

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Raggy, do you want to be my accountabilibuddy? I'm in LITERALLY the same place. DM me and we can formulate a plan because I need someone to kick my butt into action.

Form rejection from F&SF. Onwards...

RaggyCat said:

Joeyc - So that's one full in 17? That's about the same as me, so far, though most of my Rs have been personalised. How long have you been waiting on the full? As long as it's out there there is definitely hope!

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I have one out but from what I've been reading, I will be waiting a long while. And I've done so work on it in the meantime. As for the future, I don't know if my lukewarm response has been to a bad query letter or a bad opening chapter (or both). I've reworked the opening chapters completely, but the query letter has resulted in me repeatedly banging my head against a wall. Not to mention, I need to prep for Pitch Wars. It's going to be a (not) fun week.

Harlequin said:

I guess for me it was gradual. Somewhere around sixty I started burning out and no longer kept religious track of every rejection. After 100 I didn't keep track at all, hence ~130 is a rough guess.

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I got curious and went to look at my duotope. Duotrope says between all my stories I've racked up about 300+ rejections.

300+ rejections for 29 acceptances. And Duotrope tells me that's a good ratio. Lol. Doesn't often feel good.

That is good, about 10:1 ratio?

For shorts I'm about 85:5 (so, 17:1)

polishmuse said:

Raggy, do you want to be my accountabilibuddy? I'm in LITERALLY the same place. DM me and we can formulate a plan because I need someone to kick my butt into action.

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Polish - I'll DM you later! I need a kick up the behind too - I've got two hours now and yet am procrastinating wildly on this new MS despite having read over what I HAVE managed to write so far (maybe 5 pages) and finding it better than I thought.

Sorry for the Rs, guys. I sympathise with you, Joeyc - sometimes it's impossible to know what the problem is, query or chapters or something else. I was going to say it might be an idea to wait for feedback on your full before proceeding but if it's very likely to be months I can understand that isn't an option for you...

Form Rejection for me on Friday - one of the formiest forms ever, as it didn't event say "Dear Raggy" at the top. It was from an agent actively looking for new authors who states on her website she wants EXACTLY what I sent her (she was really quite specific). Those ones always make me giggle a little.

Stats so far are starting to looks a little grim. :-/ 22 queries, 2 still out, 1 Full still out, 4 CNRs, 7 Personalised Rs, rest Form from two different versions of the MS. I'm not counting my dealings with former agent in there, who read the whole thing and I essentially have a R&R with. I'm starting to wonder if part of the problem is not the book but me - perhaps agents see a previously agented authors seeking new rep and think I'm not worth touching... Impossible to really draw any cohesive theory together from the comments I have received.