Today I want to talk about rejection letters. The agency reopens to queries today and that means I'll be reading and responding to a ton of hopeful authors this week. As many of you know, I try to personalize all my rejections. As an author I can appreciate how frustrating it is to get a no without any reason attached to it.
But I'm a little concerned that for some writers, these lines of feedback might be more hurt than help. Let me lay out a scenario.
I read a query (including the pages and synopsis). The writing is just not there. The opening is lacking a direction, the dialogue feels stilted and the tone isn't age appropriate. I want to be helpful, but I can't give every query a detailed rundown of everything they need to fix. Plus, I'm only reading 5 pages here. I don't know what else needs work beyond that.
I send a pass letter praising a unique premise, but pointing out that the opening pages failed to draw me in and the dialogue needs work.
Most writers would see this and (after getting feedback from others) go back and do another round of edits on their manuscript, checking dialogue throughout.
But some will not. Some will add three lines to their opening in an attempt to draw in the reader and change a line or two of dialogue. Without looking at anything past those 5 pages, they resend it to me stating they edited based on my suggestions assuming that now I will request pages because I did exactly what they asked.
And that's where the problem is.
A query response is just that. A response to a query, not a critique of your query (or pages, or synopsis). An agent may offer a suggestion or two, and that can be a great nudge in the right direction. But those suggestions should not be taken as a substitute for a critique. And they can't be assumed to be a complete list of all an agent's thoughts.
So next time you get a query response, keep in mind that there is always more to the story than what's on the page.
So this isn't exactly completely on topic, but the best way to deal with a rejection letter is control what you can. The best thing I ever did with a rejection letter is get really annoyed and write a business plan that allowed for the option but not the necessity of an agent.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I am opposed to writer who set a goal to "get an agent". That's not a goal because it's not in your control. Instead writers should focus on what they can control like finding new critique partners, or attending a workshop.
DeleteEven Super Sarah can't post every day! :-p
ReplyDeleteAlas, I'm still trying to get back into my post holiday swing. In my defense, I was still out of town last week. ;)
DeleteWhen I was querying, I wish the agents would have given any indication of why they were passing. Mostly I got "doesn't fit in my line," despite the fact the genre was exactly what they represented. I got very few comments about why agents passed, and those varied widely. (I can't believe writers edit a few pages and re-query. A pass is a pass. What's wrong with people?)
ReplyDeleteI try to give something, unless the writing is just truly awful and the truth would be counter-productive. However, I understand that not every agent can or wants to do that. As an author, I know it was super helpful to get that, if for no other reason than to know that someone thought about my project for a minute.
DeleteGenerallly, the people who requery the same project are the ones who don't bother with CPs, reading in the genre or any of the other habits that will actually help them find representation. I try not to let it bother me. :)