Question on Revise & Resubmit feedback

BBBurke

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Here's my situation and I would love some feedback from folks who've gotten R&R requests from agents.

I have an MS I'm querying and an agent read a partial and then requested a full. She decided to pass on the full but asked if I had any other completed MS's. I sent her one I queried a few years earlier to no results and after reading the full MS she just sent me a Revise & Resubmit on it. But the thing is, her feedback was very brief and generic. She said she likes the characters and the plot, but thought I did too much telling in some places (she gave one example that consisted of a single paragraph of narration to introduce a character). She said she knows that every book balances showing and telling, but if I could tighten up some of the telling she'd like me to resubmit.

Now, I'm sure it's true that I could tighten up the writing - couldn't everyone. But it seems like a vague and generic suggestion and I'm not sure how to take it. Is that normal for an R&R? I kind of expected a little more detailed guidance on what to fix and change if an agent is going to agree to take a story on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

(If it makes any difference, the story is a YA Sci-fi, and none of my beta readers or other feedback have complained about too much telling)
 

mccardey

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Here's my situation and I would love some feedback from folks who've gotten R&R requests from agents.

I have an MS I'm querying and an agent read a partial and then requested a full. She decided to pass on the full but asked if I had any other completed MS's. I sent her one I queried a few years earlier to no results and after reading the full MS she just sent me a Revise & Resubmit on it. But the thing is, her feedback was very brief and generic. She said she likes the characters and the plot, but thought I did too much telling in some places (she gave one example that consisted of a single paragraph of narration to introduce a character). She said she knows that every book balances showing and telling, but if I could tighten up some of the telling she'd like me to resubmit.

Now, I'm sure it's true that I could tighten up the writing - couldn't everyone. But it seems like a vague and generic suggestion and I'm not sure how to take it. Is that normal for an R&R? I kind of expected a little more detailed guidance on what to fix and change if an agent is going to agree to take a story on. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

(If it makes any difference, the story is a YA Sci-fi, and none of my beta readers or other feedback have complained about too much telling)
Hi, there. I suspect you're going to get a lot of 'It depends on the agent' and 'it depends on the work' and 'It's up to you' so I'll start the ball rolling - it's up to you whether you do that work and resubmit and take your chances. I'd just put three quick notes here: you say she only illustrated with one paragraph. I'd say one paragraph is all the illustration she needs - there may been many more. You say that your betas and other feedback haven't mentioned it being too telly. That's good, but this agent has, so it matters to her. You say that you imagine you could tighten up the writing - do that! Do that before you send it out. Let them see your work at its shiniest brightest best.

But I'd also say - you got two requests, two reads, feedback and an offer to resubmit - and you've already written two books at least. You're doing really well - congratulations! You're in the game :)
 

waylander

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Look at your manuscript with new eyes, at every paragraph and think "could I do this better, through dialogue or action". Look hard at the para the agent highlighted, are there any kinda similar? I'll bet there are? Find them and tweak them.
 

ap123

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Don't really have advice, just commiseration as I sit looking at an R&R--and I feel lucky, I emailed the agent with questions after her letter, and she answered. But still, not a detailed editorial letter.

I suspect it's one of those things where it gets easier with experience, but will always be variable depending on the writer, the mss, and the agent.

Good luck!
 

BBBurke

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Thanks for all the feedback. I think I will tackle the revisions but I'm in the middle of querying something else so I'm not going to rush to it.
 

Sparverius

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I have one thought to add to this: if you're on the fence about pouring time into the revision, or about this agent's real interest level, you might consider / ask if you can send something like 50-100 revised pages for them to assess. (This happened at certain stages of my R&R.) Some agents just want to see that you're capable of revising well. I'm wondering if this is the case since what the agent requested of you was more craft adjustments than any plot, character, or structure changes…
 

MercyMe

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I see you've made a decision, but for anyone out there wondering... I received an extremely informal R&R from an agent. She passed on the full with a brief paragraph detailing what didn't work. A light bulb went on when I read it, and I knew she was absolutely right. I made an extensive revision to the mss and sent it back at the end of August. She still might pass, but I have a better novel thanks to her. I know it doesn't always work out that the notes make the book better. In my case, they did.
 
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