The most frustrating rejections

It may be as simple as bad timing, even with 200 queries. Read any now-famous author and many of them will say that they wrote X number of books before they finally got one accepted.

You're learning, published or not, and that's nothing to be ashamed of!

No great advice here. I've just been dipping my toe in and getting it scalded lately, so frustration has been coming in different flavors for me.

Normally active and responsive agents who seem to have dropped off the face of the Earth: no responses to any queries as per QT records (even though they are usually quick to send yeas or nays), no tweets, no blogs, no nothing for a couple months. Are they just swamped? Have they left the profession? Are they ill or dealing with a personal crisis? No way of knowing, and of course one can't nudge on an initial submission. And then I feel rotten for even being impatient behind the scenes, because if the poor person's mom just died, or they're sick, or dealing with some other horrible problem, then it's selfish to be antsy because they haven't responded to my wonderful query and sample pages.

Full requests that turned into nos that were personal, encouraging, and polite but devoid of any specific feedback on how far they got or what made them give up on it.

Form rejections from agents I had hopes for, based on the overlap in taste with agents who requested fulls from me, the kinds of books they rep, and their stated wish list on their web sites. But in general, form rejections are better than the ones who just never get back at all.

And mainly it's the just not knowing why or how to fix this project (if it needs fixing at all), or if I abandon it, how to make my next project better.

This whole process is just so agonizing. Eat lots of chocolate and keep writing. Now if I can just follow my own advice

I got a rejection once on a full where the agent essentially ripped all my plotlines to pieces. She didn't like any of it. She went so far as to tear apart my final plot twist (revealed in the last 10 pages). I wanted to reply: if it was that bad, why did you read 82,000 words of it, then? Sometimes, it makes no sense. You just have to move on from there.

Personally I find the rejections where the agents tell me they're not interested in my work to be the most frustrating of them all

Didn't fall in love is a deeply discouraging one... it's one thing if I just don't have what it takes as a writer, but if it's just a matter of not being that one person's single favorite book they've read all year.... that's really frustrating, and sad, and infuriating. I'm sure you could find a room of a hundred people, give them all a copy of GAME OF THRONES or GONE GIRL or fill in whatever bestseller you like, ask all 100 of them "Was this THE BEST BOOK you have read all year?" and get a no from all of them. I mean, you might get a yes, too. You might get ten or twenty yeses... but it's totally subjective. Those really break my heart. Along with "not sure of its place in the market." (;_

hikarinotsubasa said:

Didn't fall in love is a deeply discouraging one... it's one thing if I just don't have what it takes as a writer, but if it's just a matter of not being that one person's single favorite book they've read all year.... that's really frustrating, and sad, and infuriating. I'm sure you could find a room of a hundred people, give them all a copy of GAME OF THRONES or GONE GIRL or fill in whatever bestseller you like, ask all 100 of them "Was this THE BEST BOOK you have read all year?" and get a no from all of them. I mean, you might get a yes, too. You might get ten or twenty yeses... but it's totally subjective. Those really break my heart. Along with "not sure of its place in the market." (;_

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I don't think it has to be their favorite book all year, but it does really, really have to grab them and make them eager to keep reading. And I do think that's subjective — up to a point. The responses I've seen to the same book of mine from various agents and editors tell me that some people feel really grabbed by the plotline and protagonist, others less so.

And, as you say, not even bestsellers appeal to everybody. (I put down the first GoT book halfway through. I didn't dislike it, just had this realization that epic fantasy wasn't my thing.)

But our job as writers is to bring the ms. to the point where it is undeniably compelling to some readers on some level. That's the point where subjectivity becomes more important in determining its fate.

And getting there ain't easy. I struggled for years with mss. that I couldn't even get friends to beta read because they had pretty language but no narrative thrust, nothing to compel anyone to turn pages.

EmeraldLily23 said:

This is only my second time starting a thread, so eek... here goes.

My very first query received a full request so I thought I would be getting good news right away.

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This exact thing happened to me. I sent out my first five queries (too soon) and the next morning I woke up to an email requesting the full manuscript. I was over the moon!

I'm still getting responses to my queries, but I've already decided to move on from this MS. It's not ready and I'm not sure what it needs at this point. I'll accept any feedback I get from agents and I am having beta readers look at it, but it might need to go on the shelf for a year or so.

However I came on here to share my most annoying rejection that I received today. An agency requested my manuscript, I sent it, and today they responded with two sentences: "Thank you for sending us Title. We're afraid it's not a match for us, but we wish you all the best with it."

Am I wrong to think that they could have given me a little bit more of a reason? Or something slightly more personalized? Not whining-- genuinely curious. This seems unprofessional to me. Am I wrong?

Ashleythewriter77 said:

I came on here to share my most annoying rejection that I received today. An agency requested my manuscript, I sent it, and today they responded with two sentences: "Thank you for sending us Title. We're afraid it's not a match for us, but we wish you all the best with it."

Am I wrong to think that they could have given me a little bit more of a reason? Or something slightly more personalized? Not whining-- genuinely curious. This seems unprofessional to me. Am I wrong?

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Oh man. Sorry to hear. Been there. Many of us have.

There's no way around it: form rejections on fulls SUCK. Like, MAJORLY. Personally, I think they're plain wrong, though many may argue agents have perfectly valid reasons to send them.

Either way, they are a reality. My first one (for a previous ms) made me soooo angry--especially because that agent had had the full for almost six months and she had requested it from a partial. I was very ticked off, and then depressed and then offended. And then I realized it was perfectly valid for me to feel all those things, but seriously, would I have wanted to work with that person or any of the many others like that? Probably not. I moved on, accepted the gross reality of form Rs on fulls and that was that.

On the flipside, with my current manuscript my Rs have run the gamut from super-personalized, to kinda weird, to form. The ones that have hurt the most? The super personalized ones. Because they let me see a little of the personalities of those agents and they seemed like truly wonderful people to work with.

But since you just got this form R today, my advice would be for you to go have a good cry, a good rant, a glass of wine, some ice-cream, lots of chocolate and a big pity party for one. Tomorrow (or the day after, if you need more ice-cream), pick yourself up and send out more queries and/or start something new. In the meantime, hugs to you.

ETA: What's lower than a form R on a full? NO RESPONSE AT ALL. And, yes, it does happen, too.

Thanks for the comments, Moonchild!

I'm actually in a good space now because I'd basically shelved this project in my mind and turned my attention to a second novel that I am much more excited about. Because of that, I didn't get too bummed out about this rejection, other than to be a tiny bit miffed.

Partial to Full and then a form rejection sounds emotionally draining though-- I hope that never happens to me.

Ashleythewriter77 said:

Am I wrong to think that they could have given me a little bit more of a reason? Or something slightly more personalized? Not whining-- genuinely curious. This seems unprofessional to me. Am I wrong?

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You're not "wrong" to hope for more of a response--that's a normal valid human feeling!--but as you can see in this thread and a lot of the other rejection/dejection threads, there are a lot of agents out there who send form rejections. There are many reasons for this (as i'm sure you already know), and some people even prefer the form rejection to the ones that seem more personalized, because it's less of a "close call" feeling; Rejections are Rejections, after all, no matter how nicely they're worded.

I got some form rejections. I even got some "no responses" (like Moonchild mentioned!) I also got two offers of rep. This only goes to show that some people will always reject your work, and some people will always love it. You just need to make it the best work you can, so MORE people will love it. So don't let a form rejection dishearten you! Keep writing; shelve this MS if you must but keep working on the next, or just read things you enjoy for a while and then come back to your MS and get a trusted CP or do a solid rewrite before your next query round.

I believe in you!

hikarinotsubasa said:

Didn't fall in love is a deeply discouraging one... it's one thing if I just don't have what it takes as a writer, but if it's just a matter of not being that one person's single favorite book they've read all year.... that's really frustrating, and sad, and infuriating. I'm sure you could find a room of a hundred people, give them all a copy of GAME OF THRONES or GONE GIRL or fill in whatever bestseller you like, ask all 100 of them "Was this THE BEST BOOK you have read all year?" and get a no from all of them. I mean, you might get a yes, too. You might get ten or twenty yeses... but it's totally subjective. Those really break my heart. Along with "not sure of its place in the market." (;_

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Argh yes, I got one of these very recently: she loved this, she loved that, but she 'didn't quite fall in love with the voice'. The editor even wrote 'so personal, isn't it?' straight after...!

Maybe the time's just not ripe. Another vote for maybe giving it a bit of a rest for now, start working on the next novel, try again at a later point (with our without revision, as you might deem appropriate). Maybe you can sell it once you've established your name with something else.

Fuchsia Groan said:

I don't think it has to be their favorite book all year, but it does really, really have to grab them and make them eager to keep reading. And I do think that's subjective — up to a point. The responses I've seen to the same book of mine from various agents and editors tell me that some people feel really grabbed by the plotline and protagonist, others less so.

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I think the 'didn't fall in love with it' and similar formulations that agents come up with is a simple balm for the sting of rejection. Really, they only reject for one reason: they don't think they can sell it. They feed their children by selling manuscripts and were I in that position the question of whether I personally loved, liked or disliked a book would be irrelevant. They are selling it, not buying it.

Moonchild said:

ETA: What's lower than a form R on a full? NO RESPONSE AT ALL. And, yes, it does happen, too.

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Bumping this because I was just planning how to rework a manuscript to which this happened twice. Once by a new agent with a very legit agency, and then again with an experienced agent. Both times, they requested fulls and I never heard from them again, even after nudging. The whole experience soured me so much that I put the manuscript away (in 2009) and haven't thought of it again until now.
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Totally agree. Writing can be hit or miss, and the best way to hit is to shoot a lot. I've read best sellers that I personally didn't click with. Assuming you've acquired some basic writing chops, it may be just finding the right mix of style, genre, and audience.

But I will say, spending a lot of time on those early novels sometimes helps acquire those chops.

Jamesaritchie said:

Another classic rookie mistake, maybe the most common of all, is investing far too much time and energy into one novel. I see this happen over and over and over.

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I can deal with standard rejections, but the one I received today was so bland it made me cringe.


"Please do not take this letter declining your work as a judgement of your writing. The reason we decide not to publish this particular piece could have everything to do with the style, the subject, or the genre, and nothing to do with your talent.


And do not take this note as an indication that we do not want to see your work in the future! Please feel free to submit more material! "




Judging from this, specificity is not their forte.

Sage said:

time to move on to the next book

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^this

The saddest rejection I got was also the sweetest.

An agent I absolutely LOVE who had been my first full request less than 24 hours after I queried her finally wrote back with a, "You are a marvelous writer, but based on your voice and aesthetic, I suspect you may be more suited to the adult than YA market."

Good thing I'm starting an MFA in the fall for writing for YA!

Noooooo!! I was devastated, and then had to deal with all of the self-doubt and "What if I can't write good YA?" that came after that. But I did appreciate her kind words.

Other frustrations include sending a full and then getting a form reject.