Curt Rejections

Not sure if someone has said this already or not, I didn't read every post, but perhaps you're simply frustrated with getting the rejection rather than the actual way the rejection was written? Not that I mean to psychoanalyze you, I just have this impression that as you rack up rejection letters your morale is decreasing and you're hoping for someone to soften the blow with a personalized letter so you don't feel so bad.

I do think it's good that the query letter is personalized rather than generic, though. It's your job as a writer to be polite. At my place of work, patients can get grumpy with us. When that happens, my co-worker and I tend to "trade-off". If the patient was nasty with me, J-- takes over. If the patient is nasty with J--, I take over. For example, one patient was super nervous and was terribly uncooperative with J--. I took over the situation. I helped her with the paperwork, filled everything out for her. (She was young enough to do it herself, but I took an extra step I didn't have to take.) I was far more smiley than normal. I was personal, talkative and funny so as to relief her anxiety. She was immediately cooperative with me. I didn't have a single problem with her. Yes, I had to do more work, but in the end it was worth it just to have a compliant patient.

As in any profession, let alone every-day life, people are less likely to be cooperative with someone if they're grumpy or impersonal. In a query letter you want to show the agent that you are and willing to be cooperative. Being friendly and personal will be better for you in the long run. Sure, you might have to spend extra hours doing research, but courtesy can take you far. You never know when you land an agent, if that agent could be the one to get you into Random House or Harper Collins or get your book on the best seller list and all because you spent additional time being pleasant.

If you walk into the industry with the idea you're only going to get 30 seconds of time and then a rejection, that's exactly what you're going to get, and you're going to get it every time.

You're upset about a curt rejection, but the agent may very well be upset about a curt submission. Don't be hypocritical. Curtness for curtness. Perhaps if your query letter was more personal, they too, would be more personal in their rejection.

Morgan Hunter said:

Unless you're Stephen King or Anne Rice, one can't afford to skimp on the query letter. That's my opinion anyhow.

Click to expand...

I agree 100 percent with that! I have about 12 versions of my query for the latest book, and I only ended up querying 26 agents.

However, I had all those versions not because I was personalizing (in most cases), but because I was fine-tuning the book description itself. Same with the sample pages. When I made a final key tweak in the sample pages, that's when I got an offer.

My No. 1 goal in the process was to give the agent something she'd enjoy reading, something she'd be eager to see more of. Would discussing her client list and track record have helped? Maybe. But I wanted to lead with the story and use most of my precious space for it — that was my personal decision.

Quentin Nokov said:

Perhaps if your query letter was more personal, they too, would be more personal in their rejection.

Click to expand...

I'm sure this is the case sometimes, but not always. I remember one particular agent who went on and on, on several interviews, about how she loved personalized queries and whatnot. So when I queried her I did massive amounts of research and personalization. I got a form rejection back. Now, by then I'd reached the point where those really didn't bug me that much, but that one seriously did. I think that was the turning point for me: I do NOT do blanket queries. I do address them to individual agents, make sure I spell their names right and try to target them as much as possible. But these days, unless I have a very particular thing to say about an agent (which sometimes I do), I don't bother with personalization. Like I said earlier, in my experience, it doesn't seem to affect who requests and who doesn't. I've gotten requests from folks for whom I've thrown in a bit of personalization, but also from some for whom I haven't (other than spelling their names right and making sure they rep my genre). So I guess it probably boils down to personal preference on both sides. As long as you are professional and polite and make sure you're not sending your hard-boiled noir to someone who only reps romance, I would imagine everything else is icing on the cake.

I'm not too bothered but I have missed a couple of personal rejections because I thought they were form rejections (apparently the agents concerned don't send out rejections normally)

Fuchsia Groan said:

I agree 100 percent with that! I have about 12 versions of my query for the latest book, and I only ended up querying 26 agents.

However, I had all those versions not because I was personalizing (in most cases), but because I was fine-tuning the book description itself. Same with the sample pages. When I made a final key tweak in the sample pages, that's when I got an offer.

My No. 1 goal in the process was to give the agent something she'd enjoy reading, something she'd be eager to see more of. Would discussing her client list and track record have helped? Maybe. But I wanted to lead with the story and use most of my precious space for it — that was my personal decision.

Click to expand...

You don't have to regurgitate the agent's client list or track record, entirely, to still make it professionally personal. I think that's where some people on here are getting confused or misunderstanding my case for the personalized query letter.

For example, when I solicited reviews for my first book, I mentioned one book the reviewer had recently reviewed that was in the same genre as mine and I followed it up with an acknowledgement of their reading preferences. I didn't brown-nose, I just acknowledged one or two things they did, professionally, to show them that I had at least read their reviews and knew a little about them. Humans love to hear that other humans notice them. And all it takes is one or two lines to show someone that they matter a little. That's what gets responses. Out of fifty solicited review queries, I received personalized responses from more than thirty individuals. And half of those thirty agreed to review my book. The others were just simply too overextended with review obligations and it had nothing to do with me.

See my point?

As I've said before, there is a happy median and a right way to write a personalized query letter. Some may have to tweak things a bit before they start receiving responses, but there is a right personalized touch threshold that will spark interest in an agent/reviewer/publisher.

And I agree that fine-tuning the book description is one of the most important things in a query letter. I too sometimes revisit these several times before ever deciding to hit 'send'.

Cheers,

~MH~

Curtest rejection I've ever received? This:




It's happened many many times.

caw

blacbird said:

Curtest rejection I've ever received? This:




It's happened many many times.

caw

Click to expand...

If it's "happened many many times" then why are you still sending out the same query letters? Isn't it time to revisit how you're addressing publishers or agents? Something you're doing isn't working and is obviously irking these individuals for them to send you a 'blank' response.

Lots of individuals have given some great advice and tips on this thread that I think you'd benefit from reviewing. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors.

Cheers,

~MH~

Perks said:

I don't know that I'm seasoned, really. It wasn't all that long ago I was querying. My first book was published in 2013. So, my forays into querying spanned a bit of time, and in that time I've noticed some changes. That and getting to know several agents has informed the advice I'm giving here.

Click to expand...

And I understand where you're coming from. I may be fairly new to the published author realm, but I too have written many query letters over many years and have the experience and proof to reveal that what I'm doing now works. It may even be that different genres, publishers, agents, or, simply, personality types may require different approaches to the query letter and I understand that; I just want to provide others with an approach that has been tested and works quite often--for me anyhow. I've had much success, rather recently, with my personalized approach and I wanted others to benefit from my experience.

Cheers,

~MH~

Morgan Hunter said:

If it's "happened many many times" then why are you still sending out the same query letters? Isn't it time to revisit how you're addressing publishers or agents? Something you're doing isn't working and is obviously irking these individuals for them to send you a 'blank' response.

Lots of individuals have given some great advice and tips on this thread that I think you'd benefit from reviewing. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavors.

Cheers,

~MH~

Click to expand...

I think you're missing blacbird's point. Regardless of how much you 'personalize' your query (which it seems, from the discussion, that writers often have differing ideas of what this means anyway), some agents/agencies simply have a "no response = no" policy. Many agents have form letters that they use for all query rejections, regardless of how well you did your homework or how professionally you've addressed them. Personalized responses from agents at the query stage are actually quite rare. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but) I'm fairly certain THAT was the point blacbird was trying to make.

WendyN said:

I think you're missing blacbird's point. Regardless of how much you 'personalize' your query (which it seems, from the discussion, that writers often have differing ideas of what this means anyway), some agents/agencies simply have a "no response = no" policy. Many agents have form letters that they use for all query rejections, regardless of how well you did your homework or how professionally you've addressed them. Personalized responses from agents at the query stage are actually quite rare. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but) I'm fairly certain THAT was the point blacbird was trying to make.

Click to expand...

Wow...you got all that from such a short post? If he had mentioned that he had sent out personalized letters and only got back blank responses or received none, then I could see where you're coming from.

"Rare"?

Not from my perspective. Since I've started slightly personalizing my queries, I've received these so called "rare" responses almost every time. There are some exceptions, of course. Over the past month, I have submitted to five publishers and received paragraph responses from all except one. Two, of which, resulted in contracts and I'm new to this game. However, I do have a long history of receiving curt rejections before I changed my methodology.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that says something about how I'm querying. Again, the personalized approach may not work for all, but it definitely has some merit for others.

Cheers,

~MH~

One of the differences, Morgan Hunter, is that you seem to be submitting to publishers, not querying agents. Is that the case? If so, the publishing houses that accept unagented submissions will have different protocols and likely different levels of involved responses to submissions than do agents fielding hundreds to thousands of queries per week.

It's one of the benefits of direct access to acquisitions editors that you may expect quicker and more personal feedback.

Perks said:

One of the differences, Morgan Hunter, is that you seem to be submitting to publishers, not querying agents. Is that the case? If so, the publishing houses that accept unagented submissions will have different protocols and likely different levels of involved responses to submissions than do agents fielding hundreds to thousand of queries per week.

It's one of the benefits of direct access to acquisitions editors that you may expect quicker and more personal feedback.

Click to expand...

I've submitted to both and received feedback from both, but, correct me if I'm wrong, you are suggesting that everyone on this thread is only submitting to agents? I do not think that is the case. Either way, I still hold that doing something that sets you apart from the "hundreds to thousands of queries per week" is best practice. Especially for a new author. With agents, the odds are already against a new author who has nothing to his or her name. Most agents want an author who has a couple of even slightly successful titles under their belt before agreeing to representation. This is true for musical artists and actors as well. One usually has a hit or two before garnering the attention of suitable representation. Just some food for thought.

Cheers,

~MH~

Morgan Hunter said:

... but, correct me if I'm wrong, you are suggesting that everyone on this thread is only submitting to agents?

Click to expand...

In the main, it seems that the posters in this particular thread are talking about agents. The OP was talking about agent queries.

Perks said:

In the main, it seems that the posters in this particular thread are talking about agents. The OP was talking about agent queries.

Click to expand...

That still shouldn't negate my humble efforts to offer sound advice to those that may take it. You seem quite bent on disproving my methods even though several others have posted similarly and agreed with me. This isn't a "you're rubber, I'm glue" discussion. It's about genuine people with genuine problems reaching out to others for what works and what doesn't. As you even said before, it's up to them to decide what advice they wish to glean from all the posters.

You have a way that works for you, others have ways that work for them, and I have a way that works for me. What works for one may not work for another, but that doesn't make it wrong or any less effective.

Cheers,

~MH~

Morgan Hunter said:

That still shouldn't negate my humble efforts to offer sound advice to those that may take it. You seem quite bent on disproving my methods even though several others have posted similarly and agreed with me. This isn't a "you're rubber, I'm glue" discussion. It's about genuine people with genuine problems reaching out to others for what works and what doesn't. As you even said before, it's up to them to decide what advice they wish to glean from all the posters.

You have a way that works for you, others have ways that work for them, and I have a way that works for me. What works for one may not work for another, but that doesn't make it wrong or any less effective.

Cheers,

~MH~

Click to expand...

Morgan, you've certainly stated your methods over and over. Your positions are very clear and very here for anyone to read. Nothing I could possibly say or do here in this thread would lessen your impact . But you are not the only one whose approach to this has yielded results. I also have enjoyed some success with querying, securing two agents and befriending a number of others within the last five years, not ancient history as you're trying to portray it.

There is simply no reason for you to be so argumentative and defensive. It is relevant for me to point out that much of your feedback success has been with acquisitions editors at publishing houses when the original post is about querying agents.

I'm not attacking you. I think it's great that you're here at AW with some positive experiences to share and, hopefully, build on. I'm not your adversary.

JHFC said:

In the querying process, am I the only one who gets irritated by curt rejections? I love personalized rejections, I am fine with form rejections (hey, at least they replied, right?), I can handle no response rejections, but lately I've gotten a couple query rejections that just seemed rude.

Stuff along the lines of "Not for us." and that's it. No "Dear author" or "Thanks for submitting" or whatever. Like literally three words in the entire email. Am I being overly sensitive, or would it be nicer to just not reply? I feel like it is the latter but maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing.

Click to expand...

Sometimes those curt rejections can feel like:

"You should lobotomise the lobe from which this drivel spewed."

But I'll take a curt rejection over *crickets* (Er. Well, maybe not my example). But I think curt rejections simply mean the agent is busy, so I don't read anything into them (same with nice form rejections).

WendyN said:

I think you're missing blacbird's point. Regardless of how much you 'personalize' your query (which it seems, from the discussion, that writers often have differing ideas of what this means anyway), some agents/agencies simply have a "no response = no" policy. Many agents have form letters that they use for all query rejections, regardless of how well you did your homework or how professionally you've addressed them. Personalized responses from agents at the query stage are actually quite rare. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but) I'm fairly certain THAT was the point blacbird was trying to make.

Click to expand...

+1 This is exactly what I got from blacbird's post.

I say to myself "hmm, that's kinda rude" and then wanted to know if anyone else thinks it is rude. I think some people are reading a seething anger into this that doesn't exist. It just rubs me the wrong way.

Click to expand...

Oops. I hope that wasn't me. I was trying to sympathise with you but maybe it came out wrong? If so, I apologize.

Perks said:

Morgan, you've certainly stated your methods over and over. Your positions are very clear and very here for anyone to read. Nothing I could possibly say or do here in this thread would lessen your impact . But you are not the only one whose approach to this has yielded results. I also have enjoyed some success with querying, securing two agents and befriending a number of others within the last five years, not ancient history as you're trying to portray it.

There is simply no reason for you to be so argumentative and defensive. It is relevant for me to point out that much of your feedback success has been with acquisitions editors at publishing houses when the original post is about querying agents.

I'm not attacking you. I think it's great that you're here at AW with some positive experiences to share and, hopefully, build on. I'm not your adversary.

Click to expand...

I don't feel I'm being argumentative, but I do feel that's how you've approached me. I could be wrong and if I am, then I apologize for any misunderstanding. I know I'm not the only one with good ideas to offer others and I'm pretty sure I've stated that multiple times. I also acknowledged your success and I applaud your accomplishments (I only mentioned so called "ancient history" one time and that was in reference to a statement you made on the matter). It's just seemed, at times, that you were quick to dismiss my thoughts on the issue. That's all. I'm not your adversary either and I hope we continue to generate good conversation as things progress. I wish you all the best.

Cheers,

~MH~

JHFC said:

I do want to step in here and say that I think some people are getting the wrong impression. When I get these, I don't ball up my fists and slam them into my desk and get all angry and pour myself a drink and go on a dogkicking spree through three states.

I say to myself "hmm, that's kinda rude" and then wanted to know if anyone else thinks it is rude. I think some people are reading a seething anger into this that doesn't exist. It just rubs me the wrong way.

Click to expand...

What?!?! You weren't about to burst into flames? What kind of writer are you?



Nah, I didn't take your original post that way. I really, really hated the silent responses. The curt ones were just the normal amount of ouch for me.


ETA - and Ha! I say all that like it's permanently in the past tense. I don't happen to be querying at the moment, but anything could happen.

JHFC said:

I do want to step in here and say that I think some people are getting the wrong impression. When I get these, I don't ball up my fists and slam them into my desk and get all angry and pour myself a drink and go on a dogkicking spree through three states.

Click to expand...

Curses! There was me thinking I'd found a kindred spirit. *kicks a dog*

JHFC said:

I do want to step in here and say that I think some people are getting the wrong impression. When I get these, I don't ball up my fists and slam them into my desk and get all angry and pour myself a drink and go on a dogkicking spree through three states.

I say to myself "hmm, that's kinda rude" and then wanted to know if anyone else thinks it is rude. I think some people are reading a seething anger into this that doesn't exist. It just rubs me the wrong way.

Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with grabbing a drink to even the blow. You just pick yourself up and move forward anew the next day. I don't think you have any malicious intent or misdirected anger. It sucks to get rejected and I think it rubs everyone the wrong way.

Cheers,

~MH~

Moonchild said:

I remember one particular agent who went on and on, on several interviews, about how she loved personalized queries and whatnot. So when I queried her I did massive amounts of research and personalization. I got a form rejection back. Now, by then I'd reached the point where those really didn't bug me that much, but that one seriously did.

Click to expand...

Oh, man. It's like I wrote this. When I got my form rejection I was all

JHFC said:

It wasn't directed at anyone in particular. I think as I was skimming the thread I saw a couple responses like "chill out" but I didn't associate a name with any of them.

And I am thankful for everyone sharing their own experiences, whether that means joining me in misery or shining light on the end of the tunnel.

Click to expand...

Oh, good. Just my usual paranoia.

JHFC said:

When I get these, I don't ball up my fists and slam them into my desk and get all angry and pour myself a drink

Click to expand...

I don't pour myself a drink either. That's cuz I usually have one already.