Rejection Wednesday #3

You know what’s the best feeling in the world? Seeing this beacon of hope in your inbox, in response to your query letter:

Sounds intriguing! Please send me the first 30 pages and a synopsis as Word document attachments. I look forward to reading your material!

You know what’s the worst feeling? Seeing this follow-up in your inbox a couple weeks later:

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to read your submission. I appreciate you considering me for representation of your work. Unfortunately, after careful review, I have decided to pass on this submission.

As the tide of rejection letters continues to roll in, I thought I’d share a few tips for everyone like me who is currently in the novel querying stage. These are sites that have helped me immeasurably to keep track of all my non-progress:

Query Tracker – If you are in the querying stage and you haven’t visited this site yet, DO IT. This site will give you, in a nutshell, pretty much every agent known to man, the genres they’re looking for, and even average query response times. Then, when you query an agent, you can use this site to keep track of agents you’ve already queried, and update your “status” as to whether the agent sent a rejection, manuscript request, or offer of representation. It’s an invaluable tracking tool.  http://www.querytracker.net

Writers Digest – In the site’s editor blogs, check out Chuck Sambuchino’s “Guide to Literary Agents”. His blog features agents and their specific wish lists and submission guidelines, as well as “New Literary Agent Alerts”. Folks, new literary agents are GOLD. They don’t have a client list built up yet, which means they are far more eager to find new talent than established agents. You can find Chuck’s blog here: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents

Publishers Marketplace –This site is basically THE one-stop-shop for all publishing news. It provides full agent contact information, and a list of every author/novel each agent represents. This site also reports every book deal, which agent closed that deal, whether it’s a multi-book deal, and the approximate “value” (rated on a scale of “nice deal” to “major deal”). There’s a monthly fee to be a member, however, so take that into consideration. In my opinion, it’s worth it to sign up for one month, soak up all the information you can, and take into account which agents seem to be the “best bet” (aka has closed on deals, most aligns with your genre based on books they rep, etc.) http://www.publishersmarketplace.com

I hope you find these tips somewhat useful, and I wish you the best of luck in your pursuit of publication! Now, roll up those sleeves, and go get that YES!

Until Next time,

JB

15 thoughts on “Rejection Wednesday #3”

  2. Oh those pesky rejections. I know the sinking kick you while you’re hopeful feeling. 😉 Do you use the literaryMarketplace? I’m leery of the sites that want money for access, does the publishersMarketplace charge a fee to access agent listings? Good luck and stay positive and persistent.

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    1. Hi there! I haven’t tried literary marketplace, and publisher’s marketplace does charge a monthly fee ($25). I only signed up for a month just to poke around before I started querying. Definitely a lot of info to absorb. Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by!

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      1. I just queried another 20 agencies through the query tracker, thanks for the advice on that site. I’ll be going through and marking all the queries I’ve done and the responses.

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  4. Ay yi. Well, at least you got rejected after sending only 30 pages. One publisher I queried asked me for the entire manuscript of my memoir recently, only to send me this:
    ———————
    “Dear Ms. Presner,

    Thank you for thinking of —— Press, and for giving us time to read your work. While we were impressed with the quality of writing and sense-of-humor throughout Surviving Hollywood North, we ultimately decided it wasn’t a good fit for our list. We wish you the best of luck placing it with another publisher in the near future.

    All best,
    Blah blah blah”
    ———————
    Your tips are excellent! I have been using Querytracker, but not the others – so I think I will make use of them now. I plan to plow through all your posts – I have a feeling they’ll be very helpful! Yay!

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