How many rejections did you get before you were published?

yendor1152 said:

I'm curious as to how getting published enabled you to get an agent. When I asked that question before...probably about five months back...I received some very "curt" replies from writers who told me having a book under your belt means nothing when it comes to securing an agent.

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That would probably depend upon who the publisher was since the best of them pay advances and have legit distribution. I can see an agent coming on board on sale, at least a major one and taking over the contract at the writer's request. I don't see, however, an agent signing a writer who might have landed a deal and signed the contract without any agent intervention.

I could not see an agent offering rep to an author who has just signed-and-or published with a royalty-only small or indie press.

Oh, wow, I love this thread. It's very encouraging.

My current writer's group are having a competition to see who can rack up the most rejections this year. I think that's a brilliant idea - it takes away a lot of the sting of rejection, which is important for debut writers, I believe.

I've got no list of rejections as yet (not because I got an acceptance first try, because I haven't subbed anything yet ), but I'm hoping to set up my Big Box O' Rejections next year.

triceretops said:

That would probably depend upon who the publisher was since the best of them pay advances and have legit distribution. I can see an agent coming on board on sale, at least a major one and taking over the contract at the writer's request. I don't see, however, an agent signing a writer who might have landed a deal and signed the contract without any agent intervention.

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This is essentially how it happened for me. There were two publishers I met at a conference who were taking my book to their pub board. One of them (kindly) suggested I should get an agent (it wasn't a standard thing my genre at the time). Within a month I had an offer from one of the publishers, so when I contacted an agent about representation, I could tell them I had an offer on the table. The agent took over at that point--before I signed the contract.

It's not unheard of though, for an agent to take on a new client who has been traditionally published with a respected publisher--or who has already signed a contract. Whether the agent negotiated the contract or not, they will still get their 15% (there is often still much work for them to do on behalf of the author).

I don't think having an e-book contract or small pub credit will necessarily get an agent's attention, but if they resonate with the writer's work and see potential with future projects, I think that gets more consideration than someone who is completely unpublished.


PS--I guess my answer to the OP's original question would be 3. I took my project to a conference and showed it to 4 publishing representatives. 2 declined at the conference, 2 took it to their pub board, one declined and one published it.

Perks said:

This past year and half, I've ticked many dream-come-true boxes.

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That must be a wonderful feeling.

12 rejections (and 5 no replies). Never a fun thing.

Perks said:

I've ticked many dream-come-true boxes.

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Mine are all empty, black mold growing on the walls, many containing dead spiders and failed cobwebs.

caw

Vella said:

Oh, wow, I love this thread. It's very encouraging.

My current writer's group are having a competition to see who can rack up the most rejections this year. I think that's a brilliant idea - it takes away a lot of the sting of rejection, which is important for debut writers, I believe.

.

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I love this idea! My old face-to-face group used to read ours aloud to each other, which was a lot of fun!
I've had about 6 rejections on my first book, and 40 on my third book that I queried this year. Got some requests for fulls and lots of "nice writing, but not right for me." I am almost finished with #4, and hoping that this one is the winner.

Queried 117 agents over six months, all in the US. About 30 said variations of "Thanks but no thanks". No reply from the rest.

A year later, I decided to try the Asian market and queried a publisher hailed as Asia's most respected independent publisher. I got a contract three months later.

It's great to hear that I'm not the only one suffering. I must've gotten AT LEAST a hundred rejections, and those include the ones who asked for samples. The closest I got was Waxman, who read my full manuscript. Unfortunately, looking back, at that time it was pretty rough. Ugh. I'm hoping it turns around soon now that I've grown a little and made some significant changes to the book. But in the meantime, I keep querying away

My first book got about 100 agent rejections and about a dozen publisher rejections before getting published. My second book got about 85 agent rejections and about a dozen publisher rejections before getting published. My third book just came out and my fourth comes out in Dec. 2013.

Hello, I'm only a short story writer but I received one rejection before placing a short story with AMMM. (AMMM rejected that first story; I sent a second and they bought it. I sent these stories nowhere else. A few years later AHMM purchased the story they originally rejected.)

Since then, all my stories have been published by EQMM or AHMM, BUT I do still get rejected. I haven't kept count of how many I have had over the years. Sometimes I 'fix up' the story and it gets sold; sometimes not.

So, one rejection before publication.

When talking about novels, I got over 100 rejections on a novel I sent around in 2011. I did receive many 'fulls' and lots of advice, but I have set that novel aside and am concentrating on other shorts and have written four other novels.

I ramble. Hope I answered the question.

jaksen said:

Hello, I'm only a short story writer but I received one rejection before placing a short story with AMMM. (AMMM rejected that first story; I sent a second and they bought it. I sent these stories nowhere else. A few years later AHMM purchased the story they originally rejected.)

Since then, all my stories have been published by EQMM or AHMM, BUT I do still get rejected. I haven't kept count of how many I have had over the years. Sometimes I 'fix up' the story and it gets sold; sometimes not.

So, one rejection before publication.

When talking about novels, I got over 100 rejections on a novel I sent around in 2011. I did receive many 'fulls' and lots of advice, but I have set that novel aside and am concentrating on other shorts and have written four other novels.

I ramble. Hope I answered the question.

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Yeah, with shorts you can really see how much it varies between stories. My first 2 sold after only 1 rejection (they were accepted on the same day by different markets so I think of them together--1 to the first market I sent it to, the other after 1 rejection and a rewrite request). On the other hand I have some stories I really believe in but which have been going around for years.

With my novella, it took me 2-3 rejections (if not winning Writers of the Future counts as a rejection--then I rewrote the story to be longer) before I tried the right small press. I'd always had them in mind but shopped around a little first.

Under my pennames, one novel sold after only 1 rejection (in retrospect I could have shopped around more with some of the more established epubs and small presses). Another story had gone through almost every publisher on my list, and I was about to give up when Dreamspinner liked the look of it .

On the novel front: 2 agent rejections and 2 non-responses, but by then I'd had an offer from an editor I'd pitched to in person, so I got back to the agent who had my full at the time (and who was one of my top choices) and asked him to negotiate the contract for me

As Mr Flibble said earlier, sometimes you just meet the right person at the right time. Angry Robot were looking for "female-friendly fantasy" (they had - and still have - a predominantly male author list), so my intrigue'n'romance genre-bending fantasy fit the bill perfectly!

I had 47 agent rejections/ignores for Blood Atonement. I decided to query directly to a small press and it was immediately accepted. (I am thrilled with this press--for many reasons!).

I've had about 15 rejections for my first YA novel. Gave up and put it away last year to focus on my studies. After reading these comments, I'm starting to think I should dig out my manuscript, polish, and resubmit.

My biggest weakness is writing queries. Crafting a one line pitch is even more torturous!

Miscellaneous said:

I've had about 15 rejections for my first YA novel. Gave up and put it away last year to focus on my studies. After reading these comments, I'm starting to think I should dig out my manuscript, polish, and resubmit.

My biggest weakness is writing queries. Crafting a one line pitch is even more torturous!

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Have you been to Query Letter Hell lately? It's...torturous is the right word...but it may be the productive kind of torture ^_^.

MumblingSage said:

Have you been to Query Letter Hell lately? It's...torturous is the right word...but it may be the productive kind of torture ^_^.

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I'm doing my best to get my post count up so I can have this query letter to Russell Galen I have on draft reviewed. I really want to wow this dude and get a contract, so I'm not so much as sending it until I'm sure it's perfect!

Right! Sorry for failing to look at people's post counts before suggesting SYW posts.

Although if you're looking for a quick way to get to 50+, critiquing other people's queries on QLH (you don't have to be brilliant and incisive; it can be helpful just to hear "I was confused about this point" or "I really like your title but it made me expect a different genre when I clicked this thread") will get you there and give you some idea how queries work or don't work in particular cases.

Can I say, in the nicest possible way of course, that I hate some of you people who managed to sell within their first few tries? Seriously just kidding. Major congrats.

I honestly don't know how many rejections I've received. I don't save them. I don't count them. I did receive an offer for publication from a small e-press a few years ago, that for various reasons I never replied to. A few months later I checked their website and discovered they had gone out of business. So it was probably a good thing I didn't reply.

Miscellaneous,

I had 110 agent rejections for my current novel before it wowed the 111th agent. I don't think you should give up, really, until you query all the agents you would definitely want to work with (and there are lot more than 15 good ones for YA).

At the very least, you might find an agent or two who connect with your writing and/or idea and will encourage you to submit to them with later work. With every novel I queried (the current one was my fourth), I was lucky enough to have an agent develop an interest in my work as a writer, even though they didn't offer to represent on the novel that piqued their interest.

Thedrellum said:

Miscellaneous,

I had 110 agent rejections for my current novel before it wowed the 111th agent. I don't think you should give up, really, until you query all the agents you would definitely want to work with (and there are lot more than 15 good ones for YA).

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I love this--what a great success story. You're so right. Keep going...and going and going and going!!!

Thedrellum said:

I had 110 agent rejections for my current novel before it wowed the 111th agent. I don't think you should give up, really, until you query all the agents you would definitely want to work with (and there are lot more than 15 good ones for YA).

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IIRC there was a survey on here a year or two back, and interestingly it showed an inverse bell curve. The majority of respondents had either got an agent within a few queries or had tried over a hundred - which suggests that if you give up after a couple of dozen, you're probably missing out!

I was feeling pretty down actually till I came to this thread. For my first book I think it was about 30-40 rejections before I stopped and decided to put it aside for a bit. My second book was about 20 rejections before it got me an agent. In the process of submitting the second book I've gotten 3 rejections from editors so far. My agent suggested some changes to me and now I'm trying to wrack my brain into making it happen. It's not much to complain over but I've been feeling pretty crummy about "not being good enough."

But you all just inspired me to always hang in there

MokoBunny, at least you've got an agent! I never had one.

I sound like Red "he never got a dinner" Buttons. I've been published (e-books) but still haven't landed an agent. So that makes me wonder if I've hit my level, that is to say, good enough to be an e-book writer but not good enough to make that all-important jump to the paperback writer zone.

Then I say to myself, there are a lot of excellent e-book writers out there and there are a lot of excellent paperbacks. I just have to try harder and keep at it. And you sound like you're on the right track, so keep at it!

As a side note, on crafting the perfect one-line query pitch, I went over to a very popular website and perused just what the agents wanted. Sent in my query JUST like they wanted...and one agent promptly informed me "This isn't what I wanted" (even though she wrote exactly HOW to craft that pitch).

Sometimes you just can't win.

/rant

J.S.F. said:

MokoBunny, at least you've got an agent! I never had one.

I sound like Red "he never got a dinner" Buttons. I've been published (e-books) but still haven't landed an agent. So that makes me wonder if I've hit my level, that is to say, good enough to be an e-book writer but not good enough to make that all-important jump to the paperback writer zone.

Then I say to myself, there are a lot of excellent e-book writers out there and there are a lot of excellent paperbacks. I just have to try harder and keep at it. And you sound like you're on the right track, so keep at it!

As a side note, on crafting the perfect one-line query pitch, I went over to a very popular website and perused just what the agents wanted. Sent in my query JUST like they wanted...and one agent promptly informed me "This isn't what I wanted" (even though she wrote exactly HOW to craft that pitch).

Sometimes you just can't win.

/rant

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This is kind of funny because I'm in the opposite boat--I have an agent but I can't sell a book. Which makes me feel like I'm just not good enough and have reached my level, only good enough to snag an agent's attention, but not good enough to actually be published.

Even small pubs haven't been interested, and at this point I'd love to see even an epublisher interested. I can't help but feel like I'm a scrawny kid trying to play on a team with the big boys.