50 Ways To Be …

Regular readers may recall I’ve been sending my book, Bandal The Only, to agents. I blush to reveal the exact number, but let’s say since last November I’ve submitted the book over one hundred fifty times. The two most common responses are: Nothing, no response (57%), and a Rejection message (31%); the remaining 12% or so are still-active submissions. Of course, silence, after 10 weeks or so, is also rejection. But here it’s the concrete, not-gonna-happen ones I want to share with you all.

The Short Form

The majority of the rejections an author receives are pre-made, from templates. A great many of these are to the point:

Thank you for including me in your agent queries. I have reviewed it, and am afraid I must step aside on this proposed book. I wish you all the best with your endeavor.

or:

Thank you for your submission. I appreciate the opportunity to consider BANDAL THE ONLY. After careful review, I will be stepping aside.

Not much to be gleaned here, other than you didn’t make the cut. There’s a few more elaborate patterns I see, however.

We’re The Ivy League

In this type, the message is telling you: Hey, we’re the “Harvard” of agencies, don’t feel bad if you didn’t get in. Like this:

Thank you for considering me as a possible fit to represent your book. I have reviewed your query and, at this time, I do not believe that I am the right agent to represent your work. Please know that we are extremely selective, even with the materials we review. I do appreciate you thinking of us as an agency, however, and I encourage you to continue your search for an agent who is just the right fit for you. I wish you every success in your publishing endeavors.

or:

Thank you so much for thinking of <<AGENT>> for representation, but BANDAL THE ONLY is not right for her list at this time. With her very full client list, <<AGENT>> has to be extremely selective, and she wasn’t able to fully connect with your project. We wish you all the best, and thanks again for reaching out to us.

Love Is (Not) In The Air

Sometimes you get reminded of the need to get all googly-eyed over a book:

Thank you for submitting your query for BANDAL THE ONLY to <<AGENCY>> for our consideration. We apologize for the delay in our response. Unfortunately, we did not fall in love with the opening pages as much as we had hoped. For that reason, we are going to respectfully decline the manuscript this time.

Another:

It may not seem this way, but saying no is tough for me. I’m sure hearing it is tough for you, but it’s really important for me to fall in love with a project and that just did not happen in this case. Please know that I really appreciate your patience during this process and I truly wish you the best of luck in finding the right agent! I’ll be rooting for you!

And then there’s this longish one, trying (I guess) to soften the blow:

At <<AGENCY>>, we understand that writing is a passion, an intensely personal calling, a long-time dream for many, and frequently a lonely endeavor. We have great respect for authors, and we share the writer’s passion—that is why we are literary agents.

Unfortunately, publishing is a business that necessarily involves a lot of rejection, at every stage. One of the most difficult things for us as agents is to have to say no. Yet, we can take on only a small fraction of all the work we see, and this is simply a business reality.

We say no for many reasons—because of changing trends in the market; because we already have something similar on our list; because we know of similar published or forthcoming titles; because something isn’t right for us; because although something may be strong, well-written and even publishable, we didn’t fall in love with it.

Please do try to keep this one “no” in perspective. This is a highly subjective business and another agent may adore your work. All it takes is one “Yes.” We wish you success in finding that “Yes,” whether with us or another agent and publisher.

Grasping At Straws (of Feedback)

I can say with certainty that there’s nothing between the lines of these messages. The possible reasons for rejection are pretty clear:

1. The book’s premise or theme is weak and/or unmarketable.
2. The writing or voice is weak.
3. The agent is busy and actually is not accepting anything, or your submission wasn’t strong enough to justify pushing out existing work.

That being said, sometimes you get a rejection that does make you wonder, Was I close? or Should I change something? An example of a vaguely heartening one:

Thank you for thinking of me with your query for BANDAL THE ONLY. While this sounds like a strong project, I’m afraid it doesn’t strike me as a likely fit with me and my particular editorial contacts. I wish you well in finding the right agent for your work.

What this agent is saying is, with the publishers (i.e., the editorial contacts) they work with, they can’t envisage one of them wanting to take Bandal. So, all the mechanics of the submission were fine, just not a “fit” here. Here’s one that makes you think about making a change:

…apologies for the delay in responding. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I must pass. There is a lot to like here, but the narration felt very concerned with world building and I didn’t find myself as drawn in as I’d hoped.

Science Fiction by definition needs a lot of world building. If you’re writing a romance set in New York City, virtually no world building at all is needed, everyone has a picture of what NYC is like. But until they read your SF book, nobody knows what the planet Oglethorpe 5 is like. So, you have to show them. For all that, it is definitely possible to overdo it with SF world building, and today the market is much more about “character driven” books than those with a lot of elaborate details about environments or science.

Does Bandal have too much worldbuilding? Should I start in on a rewrite? The answers are: Maybe, and No. There’s still a lot of agents I haven’t heard from. Better to completely exhaust those possibilities before considering changes. If nothing else, sometimes agents get back to you explicitly requesting changes, the coveted revise and resubmit response.

‘Dese Are The Conditions That Prevail

That was Jimmy Durante’s catchphrase, and it reminds us that the key with dealing with a lot of life is just getting used to it – cause life ain’t gonna change. So it is with rejection. If you’re a writer, better get used to it – by the truckload.

That doesn’t mean you sit there in patient silence, waiting. First off, you need to bear in mind the positives on your ledger. In my case, one of these is that an agent requested my full manuscript and is currently reviewing it. That’s a big step. It could well lead to rejection .. or it could lead to that revise-and-resubmit, or even to an offer of representation. Then on top of that, one has to keep working. I’ve already talked about completing a new novel, Stone By Stone. I’m working on engaging an editor to help me polish that book. And at the same time, I’ve gone back to work on finishing the trilogy that begins with Bandal The Only. Just this past week I completed, I think, a strong outline for Only’s End, the conclusion to Blair and Terendurr’s struggle with Bandal. Hope it doesn’t have too much worldbuilding …

Then, you need to spend time looking at things like this, that I came across whilst Googling the Great Durante. What can I say, I’m a sucker for this old-time stuff. Till next time …