When to stop?

GreenGrape

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Okay okay... I know this is very pessimistic of me BUT I blame rejection 11 coming through this afternoon.

I’ve had all form rejections so far. One that said she liked it an “awful lot” which is definitely form but I’m pretending it’s not.

I’m just curious - when will you stop? After twenty? Thirty? When you’ve had a full that was rejected? NEVER?

I’m already 40k into MS number 2 which is miles away from the one I have out for submission. Not sure where to focus my efforts... old or new.

Oh gosh this whole process sucks doesn’t it :roll:
 

Woollybear

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I plan to get 100Rs. Then self publish.

Did you see the tweet where the writer had 720Rs and 4 or 5 mss before landing an agent?
 

GreenGrape

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No I didn’t see that! Wow that is some perseverance! I think my worry is with the constant forms... a few partials and fulls might spur me on!
 

ValerieJane

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I'm with Patty. I'm not going to stop until I feel like I've really exhausted all options for trade publishing, and then I'll probably turn to self-publishing as well. I totally get that forms are getting you down, but you're so soon into the process! You have lots of other opportunities to get partials. Keep going!
 

Shoeless

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No I didn’t see that! Wow that is some perseverance! I think my worry is with the constant forms... a few partials and fulls might spur me on!

You need to keep at it and always remember that you've got more stories to tell. You're already writing a second book, so I think you're off to a good start. Don't pin it all on your first book, for some they get lucky, and that's the one that both gets an offer of representation and even gets published. For others, it may take a few books to get an offer of representation and even then a few books more before an offer of publication.

I got an agent for my first book, but he was unable to sell it, or the other two books I wrote after it. We parted ways, and a few years and over 400 rejections later, I got another agent who's been a pretty fierce advocate about getting this sixth book onto the desks of the right editors. So everybody's got a different journey.
 

lizmonster

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The time to stop is going to be different for everyone, but my rule is I'll keep going until it hurts more to hope than to quit.

(And no, 11 rejections isn't many, really! Take heart.)
 

Treehouseman

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100, then write another book, and 100 on that and so forth until you get published.

You’ll find after book 5 or 6 why nobody picked up the first, lol! Then you can go back and fix it up.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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If they're form rejections, and they're from queries where you didn't include any pages, then the problem is the query. Fix that. Your manuscript may or may not have problems as well, but if you can't get people to read it because the query is bad...

Fix the query. See Query Letter Hell on this site and Query Shark elsewhere.
 

GreenGrape

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Great advice - thanks all. Think I’ll post my query before starting another round of submissions!
 

PSkertich81

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I love the positive comments that helped enable the OP. Every great author has stacks and stacks of rejection letters. They didn't toss in the towel. They kept on pursuing their dreams. One day, you may just find yourself represented and published. Keep your chin up.
 

gem1122

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100, then write another book, and 100 on that and so forth until you get published.

You’ll find after book 5 or 6 why nobody picked up the first, lol! Then you can go back and fix it up.


Yes.

A writing teacher many years ago told me I have a lot of novels inside me, and by the time I get to the 5th or 6th one, I should know what I'm doing. Though my first published book is my third novel, I've worked on it so long it may as well count as my 5th. So, as much as I didn't want to admit it at the time, the guy was right. I've learned not to fixate on a single book, despite all the work I've put into it. I know I will write another one, and another, and that each time, I'll learn more and improve.

To add to the other stories about writers being persistent and weathering rejections, I once attended a workshop with an author who had queried everyone he could, even if they weren't interested in books in his genre. He claims he contacted over 400 outlets and received exactly one offer. It was with a prominent agent who landed a contract with a prominent publisher.

Another writer friend stopped querying after about 20 rejections. She targeted only her top agent choices and wasn't interested in anyone else. To her, publishing this book was 'the best or nothing at all.' She never received an offer and moved on to other things. She just couldn't deal with the rejection.

My writers group often jokes, "Tell me again why we do this to ourselves!" It's hard. Time consuming. A chore. A battle with ego and the 'real' world of jobs, mortgages, and families. And yet, we persist.

Onward (here's to a productive weekend) !!!
 

cool pop

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No can tell you when to stop. That's going to be up to you but I know people who since 2005 are still querying agents. More than a decade of querying and getting nowhere would be more than enough for me! I admire their determination but if I'd been querying that long and not gotten anywhere I wouldn't quit writing but I would move on to other ways of getting my work out there. So the breaking point is up to you. Some are determined to get an agent and big house come hell or high water and will put in 20 years of querying, rewriting, revising, etc to try to get there. Others won't. There is no wrong or right. Do what's best for you. I'd say give it at least a year of querying and if you don't want to continue after that then seek out other forms of publication but you don't have to quit writing.

When I started out you had to go with a publisher because you couldn't get anywhere self-publishing. But, if I started out today with what I write I'd go straight to self-publishing. No way in this day and age could I wait years on an agent and publisher. No way.

Good luck!
 
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rosegold

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I don't think I'll ever give up. If I get enough rejections, I might take a break to focus on other books, but I can't see myself putting it away forever. I've spent so much time on it, and the characters have become so real to me.
 

rosepetal720

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I haven't read the other responses, but this is what you do:

It's very rare that you'll get a yes on the first round. You send your query to 10-15 agents -- no more -- and if you don't get a reply after a few months, something is wrong with either the query or the book. Learn more about writing queries and books. Have some writers look at what you're submitting to see if they can tell what's wrong with it. Learn more about the agents you're submitting to; you might have sent it to people who aren't interested in the kind of stuff you write.

This process can take years.
 

Kensi99

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You have my sympathies. My last agent I got after exactly one query (more of a pitch, I met her at an event). She sold my book, then quit the business.

My first fiction book, I got a full request on my very first query, and by a big "dream" agent. I thought, well, this won't be so hard. Hahaha! 85 rejections later.....

My friend who'd queried 200 agents a few years ago tried to warn me but I thought, well, NOT ME. Yes, me.

11 is not a lot. And you've already had requests. So you have something. Go for at least 50.
 

merlot143

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My first ms didn't sell despite interest from agents and lots of querying. I also worked with a professional editor on it. It was hard to trunk because I worked 7 years on it, researched and basically dreamed about it. Then ms #2 came to me like a gift. It was still work but it wasn't hard. This time I used the writing techniques I worked on in my first novel. And I'm getting a lot more hits this time around. I can see why ms #1 didn't fly (and it's partly due to a really tough market). If you had told me a few years ago, ms #1 wouldn't sell, I would've fallen into a depression. But it cleared the way for a more marketable ms#2.
This doesn't answer your question directly but it made me understand this is a process and you have to go along with it at times even if it doesn't lead to the answer you want.
 

Shoeless

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This doesn't answer your question directly but it made me understand this is a process and you have to go along with it at times even if it doesn't lead to the answer you want.

This is very true. It's not an answer that a lot of people want to hear, but it's necessarily a good strategy marketing or emotional health-wise to invest everything in the first manuscript. It may not be the one that gets you representation if you're shooting for Trade Publishing, and even if does get you representation, it may not be the one your agent can sell. Good writers usually become good writers over time, so don't take the "first book, first agent, first publishing deal" as the industry standard. It isn't.
 

mafiaking1936

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Do you have a sample somewhere?

A sample of...what? Whiskey? I gave a coworker a sample of my Ardbeg An Oa the other day. I hope he liked it. But I finished the bottle.
Or did you mean my query? If you want an example of what not to do it's on the landing page of my website. https://ericlewis.ink/ Look on my works, ye writey, and despair.
 

drofnas

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A sample of...what? Whiskey? I gave a coworker a sample of my Ardbeg An Oa the other day. I hope he liked it. But I finished the bottle.
Or did you mean my query? If you want an example of what not to do it's on the landing page of my website. https://ericlewis.ink/ Look on my works, ye writey, and despair.

Ardbeg is delicious. Prefer Laphroaig though, myself. Also, I thought the first chapter of The Heron Kings was a fun read. Keep it up.
 

1sa1ahsMum

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This is a long demoralizing journey. I am tempted to say "Don't give up" but, only you can make that choice.
 

Paul Lamb

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As long as you still believe in the work, you don't stop. Not only may you find ways to improve it, but the market is always changing. Editors come and go. Tastes change. If you think it's good, don't give up on it.