First rejection on a partial

I got my first rejection on a partial today. It wasn't terrible. The agent said she thought my pages were interesting and liked my story concept but she felt it needed to start a little quicker to hook the reader.

At least it's something I can work with if I decide to revise-- better than a form rejection I suppose. I have 4 other requests out, though, so I'm going to wait and see what others say (if anything) before I change anything.

It could be worse, but still... sigh.

ScottleeSV said:

A positive rejection, imo. I'm sending off for the first time soon and if I get that, I think I'd be quite pleased. Then again, I don't know how long you've been at it.

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I've not been at it long at all--just a couple weeks. But I'm not sure there's such a thing as a pleasing rejection. When your query is rejected, you can tell yourself... I'm just not selling this story the right way.

When your pages are rejected, you have to start wondering if you have a problem. At the end of the day, it's still a rejection. The only positive part is that she gave me a bit of direction/rationale as to why, so at least I'm not wondering.

Wilde_at_heart said:

Wise idea. Maybe try a few more first; it's hard to say as it's just one person.

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That's what I keep telling myself, but it's hard not to worry maybe I have a problem I should fix. The thing is, I had 6 beta readers. 2 of them said they thought it needed to start faster (like this agent). The other 4 said they were hooked right away. It was pretty polar opposite feedback.

So I thought at the time, well it's just a matter of taste. But now with the agent saying that... I'm doubting again. And worrying about the other 4 requests I have out there (pointless, I know). And wondering if I should come up with an alternate version to send out if I get more requests from the queries I still have out there.

It's just one rejection, right? I shouldn't go revising based on that, right? I think I need to be talked off the ledge.

Wilde_at_heart said:

And, well, at least you know the concept works for someone; trust me, even though you're right that a rejection is still a rejection, you're in the right direction at least.

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Yeah, that's true. I've decided to stop sending out queries for the time being until I see what happens with some of these requests. Apparently my query and first 5 pages are working well enough. So theoretically they'll still work well enough in 3 months if I start up querying again. In the mean time, I can wait and see what happens with the pages. I just don't want to burn through more agents if I have a problem.

Speaking of which, I got another full request yesterday from a query I sent last week (prior to the rejection on the partial). I ended up deleting about 3 paragraphs from the first couple of chapters that I thought maybe weren't essential. If the beginning is too slow, this is probably not enough, but I didn't want to do anything rash after just one rejection. At the same time, it felt good to do something. I'm probably crazy.

Belinda Rees said:

Don't forget, that agent is a person too with their own opinion - just like your beta readers. Another agent might be in the other camp and love how the story begins. You'll never meet them though if you don't keep going with it

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Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for! I'm not opposed to feedback and making changes to make something better, but I don't want to revise just for the sake of accommodating someone else's taste. It's just so hard to know the difference sometimes.