Don't know whether this is the right place, but this has been bugging me for years. This was what was written in my first rejection letter for my first novel (many years ago). The agency is a top UK agency (the agent herself has now sadly passed away) and I appreciate that they had handwritten this on a form letter (so they must have seen something in it). But it has irked me with self-doubt for years.
It was a crime novel with a male MC and I've always looked at this as a 'marketing rejection' (who do we market this book to?) But it's haunted me, is this how readers think? Because I'm female am I supposed to write crime books only with a female MC. I'm not trying to be Martina Cole or Lee Child (I don't particularly enjoy those type of stories anyway).
Are readers really that fickle?
It was a crime novel with a male MC and I've always looked at this as a 'marketing rejection' (who do we market this book to?) But it's haunted me, is this how readers think? Because I'm female am I supposed to write crime books only with a female MC. I'm not trying to be Martina Cole or Lee Child (I don't particularly enjoy those type of stories anyway).
Are readers really that fickle?