What bothers me most about my rejections is that I've squandered so many opportunities with poorly conceived query letters that likely elicited a range of negative responses, many of which I'm convinced would not have occurred had I communicated more effectively.
The Rejections I Deserve
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I'm confident I can improve the level of interest generated by my query letters, and not confident at all that once given a greater opportunity to share my work, or limited parts of it, things will progress further.
Though I've had a couple of good strong shots in the arm along the way, I'm a bit resigned that my aim is not where the markets might be. I'm willing to go for utter failure if that's where this leads. No one ever assured me I had any literary or artistic ability anyway. I've always told good stories, but that's not enough.
I'm a bit resigned that my aim is not where the markets might be
You never know. The markets change all the time. Contrary to what agents and publishing houses would have you believe, they have no clue what the next trend will be. They're guessing most of the time.
Keep trying. And make sure your writing is the best it can possibly be. If you have a good story to tell (and you can write well) people will read your novel.
No one ever assured me I had any literary or artistic ability anyway. I've always told good stories, but that's not enough.
Success is what you make of it. If you define success as a writer by setting your goal to be like Stephen King or JK Rowling, then that's quite a mountain you have to climb.
If, on the other hand, you simply want o write the best book you can possibly write, then you will succeed.
If you have good stories to tell, but feel your "literary" ability isn't up to par, then you know what you need to work on. If you have the means, take some writing classes - community colleges are cheap, by the way.
If you don't have the means, scour the boards on here and elsewhere looking for someone who can help you develop your skills. Someone with a degree in English would be the best bet.
So, no, success is never guaranteed. But successful people get there by overcoming the odds.
You never know. The markets change all the time. Contrary to what agents and publishing houses would have you believe, they have no clue what the next trend will be. They're guessing most of the time.
Keep trying. And make sure your writing is the best it can possibly be. If you have a good story to tell (and you can write well) people will read your novel.
No one ever assured me I had any literary or artistic ability anyway. I've always told good stories, but that's not enough.
Success is what you make of it. If you define success as a writer by setting your goal to be like Stephen King or JK Rowling, then that's quite a mountain you have to climb.
If, on the other hand, you simply want o write the best book you can possibly write, then you will succeed.
If you have good stories to tell, but feel your "literary" ability isn't up to par, then you know what you need to work on. If you have the means, take some writing classes - community colleges are cheap, by the way.
If you don't have the means, scour the boards on here and elsewhere looking for someone who can help you develop your skills. Someone with a degree in English would be the best bet.
So, no, success is never guaranteed. But successful people get there by overcoming the odds.
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The rejections I deserved were the ones where I refused to take advice and learn. Being successful means not only learning from your mistakes, but recognizing what IS a mistake. The biggest mistake I see, repeated time after time, is the refusal to take advice because of the fear that learning different methods will somehow destroy artistic integrity or ruin the authorial voice. When I finally said to myself, "Suck it up, sunshine. Drop the 'special snowflake' routine." I started getting less rejections. 
Ach, we all do it. I'm on my sixth novel, subbing my third (one was a series) and I still buggered up the query to the first few agents - despite critiques on it. Rewrite, put it behind you, and move on.
When I first started querying I made the mistake of sending a lot of emails to agents without editing my query letter to the best of my ability. I definitely deserved those rejections!
I love the process, though! I've learned so much within the past few months. I personally think every NO is one step closer to a YES!
I love the process, though! I've learned so much within the past few months. I personally think every NO is one step closer to a YES!
If you can tell us all how to accomplish that, you rank right up with Stephen Hawking in astute intellect.
Or maybe Nostradamus, in ability to predict the future.
caw
Perhaps my answer sounded trite, but if the OP knows that their queries are poorly-conceived, I would hope they'd know when they're better-conceived. So I don't think I have to go into specifics. What I'm saying is that they should work on those queries until they're confident with them!
When I received my first rejections, I was totally depressed and couldn't manage to draw any lessons from them. It was rather childish but I couldn't help pronouncing that words in my head - "failure!", "rejection!", "looser!". After some time had passed, I've got thicker skin and began to consider that feedback in a more constructive way. And now I'm almost ok with rejections, they are an inevitable part of writer's life.
After having publicly recognized my failings, and my intention to learn and grow as I continue my efforts to improve my query letters and one day land an understanding agent, I'm back to my old behavior. Really bad query letters. Silence. Crickets. I'd share the agonizing texts, but I don't qualify yet. I'm so pleased that I have distractions to take me away from this drudgery.
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I'm with holy . . . why are you sending bad query letters?
Or are you doing that thing folks sometimes do to themselves when they don't get the response they want, you actually think your queries are good but when you don't hear back you then say they are bad. Because if the situation is the former . . . stop sending bad query letters. And if the situation is the latter I don't think this self-flagellation is helpful. 1. It's mean to yourself and we have to be our biggest supporters working in the arts. 2. You SAY they are terrible, but deep down you don't believe it, which means you aren't actually looking at your queries and trying to see what actually might be bad about them and improve them.
Either your queries are good, or they are bad. If they are bad, make them better, if they are good and you still aren't hearing anything then maybe you need to question if what you are querying is something agents are looking for right now etc.
There are pragmatic solutions to your problems, and AW is a great place to find help. Once you hit 50 posts you can post your query and we can go over it with you. Keep your chin up, we shall conquer this! (and FYI I've been on this site for almost 10 years, I actually cannot count the number of members who have shown up here trying to work out a query, having troubles, and then getting it right, and landing an agent and publisher. It happens all the time. Truly. )
Or are you doing that thing folks sometimes do to themselves when they don't get the response they want, you actually think your queries are good but when you don't hear back you then say they are bad. Because if the situation is the former . . . stop sending bad query letters. And if the situation is the latter I don't think this self-flagellation is helpful. 1. It's mean to yourself and we have to be our biggest supporters working in the arts. 2. You SAY they are terrible, but deep down you don't believe it, which means you aren't actually looking at your queries and trying to see what actually might be bad about them and improve them.
Either your queries are good, or they are bad. If they are bad, make them better, if they are good and you still aren't hearing anything then maybe you need to question if what you are querying is something agents are looking for right now etc.
There are pragmatic solutions to your problems, and AW is a great place to find help. Once you hit 50 posts you can post your query and we can go over it with you. Keep your chin up, we shall conquer this! (and FYI I've been on this site for almost 10 years, I actually cannot count the number of members who have shown up here trying to work out a query, having troubles, and then getting it right, and landing an agent and publisher. It happens all the time. Truly.
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Some people beat themselves up over rejections (been there, done that). Some people blame the agents or the market. Both are distractions.
What worked for me was reading a ton of query letters and seeing how people responded to them (agents like Janet Reid, but also commenters like me). Reading query letters that got people representation. Now I keep my first query letter (snail mail!) in a folder, along with my book contract. You wouldn't believe how bad that thing was.
What worked for me was reading a ton of query letters and seeing how people responded to them (agents like Janet Reid, but also commenters like me). Reading query letters that got people representation. Now I keep my first query letter (snail mail!) in a folder, along with my book contract. You wouldn't believe how bad that thing was.
I'm afraid I don't understand. If you know your query letters are bad, are you attempting to take steps to make them good?
That's like saying that if you know poor writing was the problem, you just make sure you don't write poorly in the future. If only it were that easy.
Writers send out bad query letters, and bad manuscripts, all teh time. They're not only teh norm, it's incredibly rare to see anything else. They do it because they don't know how to write a better query, or a better manuscript, and maybe more important, because most don't know they're sending out a bad query or manuscript at the time.
It's something they realize later, after they've gained a little more knowledge and skill. Even then, there's no guarantee they'll be able to write a good query, or a good manuscript. They may write something better than before, but it may well not be good enough, even after repeating this cycle several times.
It's something they realize later, after they've gained a little more knowledge and skill. Even then, there's no guarantee they'll be able to write a good query, or a good manuscript. They may write something better than before, but it may well not be good enough, even after repeating this cycle several times.
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are you attempting to take steps to make them good?
Apparently misguided ones, yes.
I really don't get it though! You have so many resources to use. You sound self-aware. You have people following your thread here and rooting for you! Why don't you try something new?
Someone upthread recommended Janet Reid; I second that. Go to Query Shark, read the threads there, rewrite your query. If you want, send yours in to her for potential workshopping. Or help critique the Queries of others in Query Hell and then post your own--you only need 7 critiques to make 50 comments, and along the way you may see things that help you improve your own work!
YOU CAN DO THIS. Come on now
Maybe the question to ask is: Do you want your query letters to be "better," as the current market defines that for queries? Or are you noticing that your notion of a good query and the market's notion (as articulated in QLH, Query Shark, etc.) do not match up, and wondering what to do about that?
I know I've had the experience of reading a query letter that an agent thought was enticing and stellar and thinking it was really wasn't all that. (Generally I do see where agents are coming from when they praise certain queries, but not always.) Such experiences could lead one to despair about the whole market, and to feel out of step with it.
Or they could lead one to devise ways to meet the market halfway. While there are current preferences, there is no single blueprint for "good query letters," any more than there is one for good manuscripts.
I have no idea whether this is your problem or not — just something to keep in mind.
I know I've had the experience of reading a query letter that an agent thought was enticing and stellar and thinking it was really wasn't all that. (Generally I do see where agents are coming from when they praise certain queries, but not always.) Such experiences could lead one to despair about the whole market, and to feel out of step with it.
Or they could lead one to devise ways to meet the market halfway. While there are current preferences, there is no single blueprint for "good query letters," any more than there is one for good manuscripts.
I have no idea whether this is your problem or not — just something to keep in mind.
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