This Week in Rejections: December 2020

 

OK, so this "This Week in Rejections" post is actually going to cover a couple of weeks. From the last time I did one of these posts to this moment, I have only received one rejection. 

I know. Mind blowing, isn't it? But, it's the holidays and December, so I'm not super surprised.

This agent took less than a month to get back to me, and the rejection was a form rejection. A nice form rejection, they called me by name, but there were no specifics or personalization's that applied specifically to my book. Not even a vague reference to what problems they might have had. Just that they didn't fall in love with my book. 

If you get form rejections like this, don't get down. Even the most popular books have people that hate them, let alone people that just don't "fall in love."

This query was sent and processed through Query Manager. I'll have to do a post about my experiences with Query Manager at some point, but one of the things I love about Query Manager is that I can go back and review my submission by following the link they send to you right after you query. 

However, there is something about Query Manager that makes form rejections just a tad colder. This is just my own opinion, you might not notice a difference. But at least the agent's wording was nice and polite.

If you're going to write a form rejection, make it nice. This agent did a fantastic job.

The agent had my query and the first 10 pages of my manuscript. They had the new version of my manuscript, but an older version of my query letter. I had already decided to change my query letter since querying this agent, and I haven't gotten a lot of agent responses since the major change to my manuscript. 

So, where does that leave me? What does this in-depth analysis lead me to do? 

Wait.

I just need to wait at this point. I've already changed that query letter because, though I did get some positive feedback from that query letter, including a request, I felt like the percentage of agents liking that query letter was pretty low. So I rewrote my query letter from a new angle. 

As for my manuscript, the new changes haven't had much of a chance to get responses. Especially when paired with my new query letter. I have not heard back from any agents who have had both my new changes and my new query letter.

So we wait and see.

If I start getting more negative feedback on the changed manuscript, then it's back to editing for me.