Don't give up!

[Prawn]

Check out how many queries it took for Jack King to publish his first book:

http://www.spywriter.com/getpublished.html

[Deccydiva]

It must be hard to keep going when the publishing world is telling you that you are wrong in thinking you have produced something worth their while. I wonder how many rejections arise from approaching Agents and publishers who are perhaps not the best for your work, or they are already overwhelmed and not even considering unsolicited ms at that time, or your query letter is lacking, or your quirky Brit humour lands on a US Agent's desk and they simply "don't get it" as was the case for a number of TV shows if my memory serves me right.
Having been a member on AW for a relatively short time, I have no doubt that proper preparation using the resources on this site do help, but I also know that there are "right" and "not-so-right" Agents and publishers out there for each ms and at the moment I have no idea who best to pitch my project to. When in doubt, I have been known to adopt the scatter bomb approach but I think if I get nothing but rejections for three months I may well give up.
Of course, there is the real possibility that what I am producing really is "not good enough." Ho hum. As long as I feel inspired to write, I will continue until I am truly overwhelmed with negative responses.

[Jeremy]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting the link.

[Phaeal]

My goal is to query every agent and publisher who will by any stretch of the imagination consider my genre. That's somewhere between 200-300. So I'm ready for a loooong slog, and beware! All the while I'll be looking for fresh victims.

[blacbird]

Does not work, however, if you write stuff nobody wants to read. Trust me, I know.

caw

[Bluestone]

Thanks for that link. I found it encouraging.

I agree you have to have something worth writing, but this is a pretty handy place to find that out: Share your Work, finding Betas, getting advice on various aspects of plot, grammar, etc. It's all going to tell you eventually if you - or the current ms - has what it takes. And if the signs are all pointing in the right direction, then I say go for it and query until there doesn't seem to be anyone left to query in your genre!

[Feidb]

Yup. Don't give up.

I may not hold a world record for rejections, but I've had more than most and am still at it anyway.

[Del]

My problem isn't rejection or any sort of lack of confidence in my book.

My problem is writing a query that I want to send out.

Queries sent 2
rejections 1
No replies 1
failure rate 100%

But when I finally get that query right I have no problem with burning up the lines of communications with it. :D

[Prawn]

Did you post it in query hell? I'll take a look at it.
P

[Straka]

wow, now that's accuracy by volume. The machine gun spray of querying. But hey, it worked.

[Petsey]

I too plan on querying to death, otherwise I'll always wonder, did I miss the one who saw the magic in my novel. But its hard. Last time I thought it was ready I sent out pretty steady, then one day in the mail I received 7 rejects. Four from queries I'd sent out 4 - 5 months earlier. I cracked up laughing as I read them, it was better than crying over spilled milk. Then I edited the thing again to make it better. So nope, don't give up too soon.

[RJK]

I don't know how productive it would be to send out hundreds of query letters where the first few are resulting in rejections. I think I'd be looking at the letter to see if I could improve it. If that didn't work, I'd take a close look at the MS. Maybe, like blackbird said, it's just not what they're looking for.

I sent out 4 dozen queries for my first novel. The letters changed as the rejections piled up. I polished the novel (again) after a partial was rejected. After a full was rejected, I realized that it was a very good first novel. The operative word here is, it was my first novel. My second is better. I can see that myself. I may not find a home for that one either, but I think I'll get more requests for partials and fulls (maybe not).

We all have to remember, less than 1% of what gets to the publisher's desk, gets published. It's a steep hill to climb and not every MS is going to get there.

[tehuti88]

I have to confess I never get really inspired by other people's success stories. Because they're other people, and what worked for them won't necessarily work for everyone. (The reason why I never buy inspirational books. Reading successful people saying, "Don't give up!" just rankles me. They're successful. Of course they're in a good position to say, "Don't give up!") Success, as well as how it's achieved, are very subjective things which rely on so many factors, some within our control, some beyond it. There really are some people who do everything right and go on trying till the end but never really make it. To tell the people who never gave up, but failed anyway, to "never give up" just seems insulting.

Just being honest. If it helps to inspire others though, I guess that counts for something. And now that I've thoroughly rained on the parade...

*creeps off*

[Prawn]

I don't know how productive it would be to send out hundreds of query letters where the first few are resulting in rejections.

I don't know. This is a subjective business, after all. How many times was Stephen King Rejected? J.K. Rowling? Margaret Mitchell? And at least two of them were subbing by mail with a type-written ms. What if they had given up after 4 dozen attempts?

[RJK]

I'm not advocating that others should quit after 4 dozen queries. I'm suggesting that they look at their queries toward possible revision. When I look back at my first few, all I see is blown chances at some of the best agents.

By all means run your query through SYW hell and make sure it's as good as you can make it before an agent sees it. But even then, you may want to revise it, if the letter is not generating positive results.

The point I was trying to make, is there is another alternative. that is to move on with new, and hopefully better, work, particularly if this is your first novel.

[Prawn]

By all means, but if you can query one novel and write a second, that is the option I would recommend. I had a higher request rate from people who had seen (and rejected) partials or fulls of my first novel. I knew they would be more likely to be interested in my writing because they had been before. Querying widely gave me that info. Querying widely while working on the next book is a good plan.

[Phaeal]

Does not work, however, if you write stuff nobody wants to read. Trust me, I know.

caw

How will I know no one wants to read it if everyone hasn't had a chance yet? ;)

[Phaeal]

I have to confess I never get really inspired by other people's success stories. Because they're other people, and what worked for them won't necessarily work for everyone. (The reason why I never buy inspirational books. Reading successful people saying, "Don't give up!" just rankles me. They're successful. Of course they're in a good position to say, "Don't give up!") Success, as well as how it's achieved, are very subjective things which rely on so many factors, some within our control, some beyond it. There really are some people who do everything right and go on trying till the end but never really make it. To tell the people who never gave up, but failed anyway, to "never give up" just seems insulting.



Just being honest. If it helps to inspire others though, I guess that counts for something. And now that I've thoroughly rained on the parade...

*creeps off*

Attention! Twin metaphors approaching! :eek:

Work all the factors you can control, accept the factors you can't. If you get to the very last arrow in your quiver and haven't brought the monster down yet, you haven't failed, you've just run out of arrows. Maybe those knives in your belt will do the trick...

Work helps. Luck helps. Attitude is essential. The attitude I'm cultivating is:

You can lose the prize, but if you've given your best, you've still won.

I think this is an adaptation of Krishna's maxim, so I'll repeat that for the tenth time:

You have a right to work. You don't have a right to the fruits of work. (To which I'll add, part of your right to work is to keep hauling ladders to the tree and throwing rocks at the apples until the tree falls on you. But if you really like and want apples, pretending you don't is a self-cheat.)

[SPMiller]

It'd be nice if there were some impartial third party that could evaluate writing samples and objectively determine whether a writer should give up. Unfortunately, no such service exists and likely never will. In the absence of said service, there doesn't seem to be any solution other than to continue submitting work until either 1) success, or 2) death.

[Prawn]

It'd be nice if there were some impartial third party that could evaluate writing samples and objectively determine whether a writer should give up. Unfortunately, no such service exists and likely never will. In the absence of said service, there doesn't seem to be any solution other than to continue submitting work until either 1) success, or 2) death.

But for some authors 2 helps them achieve 1.

[SPMiller]

Reminds me of a quote.

I don't want to achieve immortality though my work; I want to achieve it through not dying.

Somebody can find the attribution for me.

[Jeffrey Pace]

It should also be noted that the majority of Jack King's rejections were from agents. He had more success going directly to publishers himself.

[swvaughn]

Reminds me of a quote.

I don't want to achieve immortality though my work; I want to achieve it through not dying.

Somebody can find the attribution for me.


That'd be Woody Allen. :D

I subscribe to this philosophy. Unfortunately, my search for a vampire to turn me has thus far not yielded favorable results...

[IceCreamEmpress]

I don't know. This is a subjective business, after all. How many times was Stephen King Rejected?

Many.

J.K. Rowling?

Eight.

Margaret Mitchell?

None. The myth that Gone With the Wind was rejected by many publishers is false. Mitchell, a newspaper columnist, was approached by an editor for Macmillan who asked if she had written any novels; she gave him GWTW and the rest is history.

[Prawn]

None. The myth that Gone With the Wind was rejected by many publishers is false. Mitchell, a newspaper columnist, was approached by an editor for Macmillan who asked if she had written any novels; she gave him GWTW and the rest is history.

I guess I shouldn't have mentioned that in my query, then. :)

[sheadakota]

I just wanted to say thanks to Prawn for the encouragement and for the link, it has several agents on it I have yet to query and it has given me the courage to continue submitting.

[Julie Worth]

Check out how many queries it took for Jack King to publish his first book:

http://www.spywriter.com/getpublished.html

Dang. I'm far beyond that.

[Prawn]

Are you subbing to publishers? That's what got him published.

[Nateskate]

I enjoyed the read. It's pretty amazing how hard it was for him to get published. But it shows that creative persistence pays.