Every time
I get a rejection I feel like I came face to face with a Dementor. The lights
begin to fade, taking any happiness with it. The only thing that’s left is a
hollow nastiness deep within…and it eats away at my soul.
So to
summarize it…getting a rejection sucks. So how do I keep going? I take the
agents own words and use them to fuel my crazy patronus (which tends to look
like a samurai shih-tzu).
What I mean
is in most cases I’m getting a form reply from the agent. Usually it states
that my story isn’t the right fit for them. These are the worst of them all
because you really don’t know why the agent’s saying no to you. It could be
that the concept isn’t quite good enough to stand out in the genre. Or it might
be that there are some issues with the realism of the world we build. Most likely
though, it just isn’t right for the agent.
We have to
remember that agents have tons of query letters to read all the time. So they’re
not really likely to send a personalized letter explaining why they don’t want
our manuscript.
There are
other reasons for rejection. I’m very grateful for the few I’ve had because they’ve
helped me make corrections to my story.
Any rejections
you guys are willing to share? If so, tell me what you think it means and how
you can apply that to making your story better.
Auzy
You know, the Dementor analogy is perfect. A rejection does suck the light and joy out of your world -- at least until you bounce back.
ReplyDeleteBut no matter how crushing the rejection (and I had one that made me convinced at least for a day or so that I really ought to quit trying) I always do bounce back. And it's a good thing, too, or I wouldn't have my second book coming out next May.
Because you'll hear a lot of No's before you hear a Yes, but you'll never get that Yes if you let a few No's shut you down.
I was just thinking that--the Dementor IS perfect.
ReplyDeleteRowling got rejected by lots of agents before she found hers, right? That's probably when she came up with the idea of the Dementors.
I bounce back, too. I read the letter a few times and process, then I work on something new.
Love the Dementor analogy. I hear ya. I've gotten mostly form rejections on my query and it's tough because you just want to know why. But agents have lots of queries so it may that it just didn't catch their eye.
ReplyDeleteJust move forward. That's the advice I've been given. Keep writing and keep growing, and one day you will get a yes.
Auzy totally nailed this--rejection is AWFUL. But one of the rejections I recieved on a previous mss resulted in a heavy revision that made the book SO much better. It stung--a lot, and the revision was definetely no fun, but looking back, I'm actually glad I got the advice I did. (Of course, it wasn't a form rejection, so that helped)
ReplyDeleteN~
I have to admit that every rejection makes me feel that I have no idea what I'm doing. The form ones get to me the most, and though I understand how precious their time is, I would LOVE to know what I'm doing wrong. The most helpful one I received was on my full, saying that she loved my characters and I'm a strong writer, but she was distracted by the fantastical elements in the story. That gave me the push to clean it up and try again. I remind myself that this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, and I can't give up when the finish line could be so close.
ReplyDeleteThe form rejection is very vague. The rarer personalized rejections on a query can help. Usually we get them from rejection after reading the ms. Let me know what personalized ones you've gotten. I'm considering another post on those soon.
DeleteAuzy
Dementors - perfect. My favorite rejection ever was addressed to Sir Madame. I made my friends call me Sir Madame after that. Once I got a rejection that sounded very personal and complementary. One of my writing partners got the same word for word rejection from the same agent. I didn't feel pretty anymore. At least it was a very sweet form reject.
ReplyDeleteSir Madame? Seriously? That's too funny. Especially when that's a big no-no for us to put on a query letter. You'd think an agent would have to follow the same rules.
DeleteAuzy