Rejection Still Sucks

By Angela Henry

About ten years ago, I wrote a column for an ezine called You Should Write! I happened to be going through some old email correspondence the other day and ran across one of the columns I wrote about writers and rejection. I was surprised at how timely what I wrote was even today as I find myself in a similar situation as I was almost a decade ago. I decided to post the column for anyone who may also be going through the submission process. And although I'm referring to agent submissions in this column, the same advice can be used for publisher submissions as well.

Taking the Sting out of Rejection

by

Angela Henry

Ah, I remember it well. Everyday when I got home from work I would eagerly approach the mailbox. Why? Well, I wasn’t expecting a love letter nor was I eager to look at what bills had come. I was looking for responses to the dozens of query letters I’d sent out to agents regarding my masterpiece. Did I get responses? Most definitely. Were they what I was expecting? Not at all! Form letter after form letter, some nice and others not so nice, all saying what amounted to the same thing. Thanks, but no thanks.

Rejection sucks! It can also hurt. No writer wants to endure rejection. It can make even the most confident and talented writers doubt themselves. But rejection is a reality that every writer must be prepared for. No matter how well written your work may be, you are going to experience rejection. However, you can take some of the sting out of rejection by remembering the following during your hunt for an agent.

1. Rejection of your work is not a rejection of you. In other words, don’t take it personally, though this may be very hard to do especially when we view our writing as an extension of ourselves.

2. Publishing is a business. Agents are only going represent work they feel they can sell. Just as publishers are only going buy work they feel will sell. Does this mean only the best books are being represented and your manuscript is crap if you can’t get an agent? No! There are a lot of talented authors who had to endure years of rejection before getting an agent.

3. Appearance does count. Anything you send to an agent should look professional and be free of mistakes. You don’t want to ruin your chances before you get a foot in the door by sending mistake filled illegible query letters. Believe me, it’s no fun sitting around wondering if things would have been different if you’d spelled the word tomorrow correctly. Yes, I’m embarrassed to say this actually happened to me.

4. Don’t get your heart set on one particular agent. You should compile a list of agents that appeal to you. That way you’ll avoid feeling like a complete failure if the one you had your heart set on passes on representing you.

5. Do your homework. Several of the rejections I received were from agents who weren’t representing my type of book, didn’t represent unpublished authors, or only acquired new clients through referrals from other clients or agents. In those instances I could have saved myself time, postage, and disappointment by paying more attention to the agency guidelines I had consulted during my search. Most listings will tell what the agent’s interests are. If they don’t represent a certain type of fiction it will say so in the listing and some listings will even tell what types of work the agent is most interested in.

6. Expect rejection, expect lots of it. If you expect to be rejected then any acceptances you get will be pleasant and unexpected surprises.

Copyright ⓒ 2001 Angela Henry

Later!

The Waiting Game
By Angela Henry

Publishing is a game of hurry up and wait. When you’re looking for an agent or a publisher, and sending off query letters and sample chapters, you’d better be prepared to wait AND wait. Sometimes the answer is a quick yes or no, usually no. Yes, publishing is full of stories of manuscripts starting bidding wars between publishers mere days after being submitted. But those stories are few and far between. The reality is that most of us wait for several weeks to several months.

When I submitted sample chapters of my first book to BET Books back in July of 2003, I got a call about submitting the full manuscript six months later and had an offer of a book deal a few weeks after that. Seven months from submission to an offer is pretty typical. But it can be even longer. When I was looking for a new agent, I once had a request for my full manuscript from an agent who didn’t respond until two years later, after I had already sold the book myself. This particular agent had seen my book deal posted on Publishers Marketplace and remembered she still had my manuscript.

I now find myself in the same position once again. Patiently, or not so patiently—depending on my mood—waiting for an answer from the editors considering my latest manuscript. But things are different this time around because the revival of my writing career could hinge on this submission. It’s been about two and a half months since project X went on submission and I’m getting really antsy. My agent assures me that no news is good news. The longer it takes for a response, the better chance of getting a deal.

You see, for most editors acquiring manuscripts is a process. First an editor or assistant editor reads the manuscript. If they don’t like it, they pass on it. If they do like it, they pass it up the food chain for second and third reads from other folks at the publishing company. If the manuscript makes it through second and third reads, it gets discussed at an acquisitions meeting to see if it’s something the publisher would like to acquire. And this process can take months. Even if a manuscript gets that far, it can be rejected for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the writing.

For example, if the publisher already has a similar book on its list that didn’t sell well, or the sales and marketing department can’t figure out how to market the book, or if the author doesn’t have that almighty author platform, then the answer can be a resounding no regardless of the fact that more than one person at the company may have loved it. Then there’s the current economy. Many publishers are tightening their belts and being more selective in what they are acquiring, or so they say. A quick peek at the daily book deals posted on Publishers Marketplace shows that publishers are indeed still buying books. In the past twelve months alone, there have been 200 book deals posted for debut authors alone. So books are still being acquired.

As for me, I’m still waiting and hoping that the sound of crickets I’m hearing is a good thing ; ).

Later!