Curt Rejections

Status
Not open for further replies.

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
9,232
Reaction score
1,897
Location
Providence, RI
Back to the original question, I'll take any response over none. My favorite curt response: "Really? Nope." Though I also got a scrawled "No" on one query letter, and it was in red (maybe ink, maybe blood), and there was a cigarette-charred corner, too. If I hadn't lost that one in the sands of time, I'd frame it.
 

JHFC

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
680
Reaction score
78
Location
South
Even those are nice compared to grading with a shotgun, as a certain professor would do from time to time.
 

Luvspaghetti

Registered
Joined
Feb 9, 2015
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
A literary agency, an agent, isn't in any way obligated to respond to anyone, much less explain their reasoning. So who cares if it's curt or cute? I don't. All I needed to know is it I need to send any additional material or do I move on?

Entitlement works for a lot of things in life but in most; it's kinda tantrumy.

I personally liked agents that wrote in their bios, "Please don't write us emails or send us letters about how we're making a mistake in passing your work up." That was just awesome! it meant that a lot of pissed off people let that emotion get the better of them and that's pretty funny to me. I write to me so no one gets offended or upset.
 

Luvspaghetti

Registered
Joined
Feb 9, 2015
Messages
15
Reaction score
1
Back to the original question, I'll take any response over none. My favorite curt response: "Really? Nope." Though I also got a scrawled "No" on one query letter, and it was in red (maybe ink, maybe blood), and there was a cigarette-charred corner, too. If I hadn't lost that one in the sands of time, I'd frame it.

This is my favorite post on earth. This is awesome! I wish I could have gotten those responses. I may just invent a query story and send it out just to see what I fish back. What fun.

We need to put a coffee table book out on our snarky and mean rejections.
 

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman
Super Moderator
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
22,454
Reaction score
4,956
Location
In chaos
I may just invent a query story and send it out just to see what I fish back. What fun.

Please, please don't do this.

Writers complain about agents not responding, or not sending personalised responses, and taking months to respond; and these problems (for writers) have come about because the slush piles are so huge, and so constant; and because writers respond so badly to agents and rejections.

If fewer submissions were sent in, agents would have more time to spend on responding to them. And as most of the submissions I used to get were sent in far too soon--before the writer had adequately polished their work, before the writer had even finished the book, before the writer had done any sort of research on where to send their work, before the writer had developed any understanding of genres, markets, or how publishing works--most of the submissions I got were not things I could even consider, so they all got automatically rejected.

What makes it worse is that I routinely had to work late or take work home, just to get through the amount I had to do.

Why add to that huge amount of work for any agents, when you have nothing positive in mind? It won't be funny to anyone on the receiving end, and it will waste a huge amount of time those agents could spend more usefully on actually helping writers.

Also, there's that thing that is done periodically where a writer or journalist takes a prizewinning book, or a classic, and submits it to a few agents and publishers and then writes an article about how they can't know what they're doing because they rejected or ignored it. But what else can an agent do when faced with an obviously peculiar submission? There are several threads here in which we discuss such stories: you might find them interesting.

We need to put a coffee table book out on our snarky and mean rejections.

There used to be a blog dedicated to them, called (I think) The Rejection Collection. It wasn't pleasant, but Making Light's wonderful Slushkiller was inspired by it. Do check out Slushkiller; it's a great thing.
 

Tsaro

Registered
Joined
Apr 18, 2015
Messages
15
Reaction score
0
Location
London, UK
Unless the agent has something genuinely constructive to say, I would actually prefer more succinct rejections.

I've only received one personalised rejection, and it confused me a lot, because the advice given to me was contradictory to the feedback I got from everyone else (non-agent) who had read my book. I appreciate the fact he took time to critique my work, but it just left me a bit lost, and I wanted him to elaborate on his points.

Also, with longer or more unique rejections, I find that I'm always trying to interpret them in various ways... not helpful. For example, one major agency replied with a very kind message, which I assumed was personalised, but after discovering AgentQuery I realised that it was in fact a form rejection. This thoroughly depressed me as that message had really encouraged me when I received it. Sometimes a "not for me, thanks" is just what you need.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.