This Week In Rejections

Since my last post, I have gotten 7 responses to queries. Four rejections, two touch-bases, and one request.

The two touch-bases were exactly what they sound like. One agent reached out to tell me they are still considering my manuscript, and the other responded to an update e-mail from me. 

I share this information because I think it's helpful to share what I learn from rejections and requests and how that influences the way I query. These touch-base e-mails basically let me know that those two agents like my premise enough to keep considering my story, but that the agents are not done (or haven't really started) reading my materials. 

How does this effect my querying? Really it just gives me a boost of encouragement to keep going. Stay the course!

The request is another matter all together. It helps me know that maybe my query letter is working. Only, this request came from one of my earlier versions of a query letter. The letter has changed so much since then, but I still have a great takeaway from this. Keep reading to see my game plan.

The four rejections are as follows:

1) Form rejection. The agent had my first 25 pages, but they were from before I did major revisions. So, no sweat. Ironically, I think this agent had the same query letter that got me a request. Go figure!

2) Form rejection. The agent had only a few pages, but again they were from before I did major revisions. Again, ironically, the query letter they rejected had gotten me a request as well.

Am I doing this whole query letter thing wrong? Maybe I should just stick with one query letter and never change it? 

Nah.

3) Form rejection. But oh no! This agent had my revised material. (CRIES INTO THE VOID) Why, for the love of swiss cheese on rye! Why?!

3) Form rejection. They only had my query letter.

All in all, a fanstastic couple of weeks. I get rejections all the time, so to actually get great news is, well, great!

At this point I am revising my query letter (for the millionth time) because I just feel like I should. I'm going to learn from my rejections and requests and see what has worked for agents and what hasn't. Maybe I can see a trend in which aspects of a query letter generally get the requests?

We shall see.