Tag Archives: Rejection letter

Anatomy of three very similar rejection letters

Posted on December 5, 2016 | Comments Off

Recently, a friend of mine asked for some help after receiving two very similar rejections letters. Up until this point, she had received many stock “No thanks” responces, or the dreaded crickets in the email (as in no response at all.)

Every few months, she edited and sent out a new set of queries. Then, after getting a few manuscript requests, she received something different. Yes, still rejections, but two days in a row she received rejections with FEEDBACK. Score!

I looked over the feedback she was sent by three different agents, and realized the reasons for the rejections were very similar.

Without giving her name, or showing the exact rejections, I am going to cut and paste my analysis of those rejections. Even reading this back to myself after I’d written it, gave me ideas to go back and revise things in my own manuscript.

I hope you find this helpful!

***

Hey you! First of all, YES I believe you read into this correctly. Your writing is so polished that a few people decided you were worthwhile enough to tell you why they decided to pass. So, on that point: CONGRATULATIONS!

All three of these emails confirm that you have an awesome, original concept that they all believe has the power to be a hit. This is the first hurdle everyone needs to overcome. Rock on, girlfriend!

Past this point, you need to prove that the structure and voice are good enough for them to RISK countless hours of their own time to try to sell your work. (Because, hey, if they can’t sell it, they don’t get paid)

So, this is what I see when I read each email…

#1. “I had a hard time connecting…”

#2. “I didn’t connect with the narrative voice.”

#3. “The narrative wasn’t able to keep me as entranced as the plot would suggest.”

These all said pretty much the same thing, which is AWESOME! Now you know what you need to fix.

“Connection” has to do with VOICE and DEEP POV.

VOICE: You need to ask yourself: Is the voice that I am writing in authentic to my main character? If she is 16, does she sound like a 16 year old? (In spoken word, inner thought, and also in the narrative)

DEEP POV: Does the overall narrative flow without any bumps that will draw my reader out of the story and remind them they are reading a book? (look for “gentle” show verses tell issues. Look for words like WAS, LOOK, SEE. Check for passive tense.)

Basically, you want to hook the reader on the first page and draw them so deeply into the POV of your character that they can’t get out. They forget they are reading, and all of the sudden it’s 6 hours later and they flip the last page. [[Not that I am an expert at this, but every draft I do gets me closer]]

Now, on comment number three: “The narrative wasn’t able to keep me as entranced as the plot would suggest.”

This could be one of two things. Because of the first two comments, I would guess that the issue is voice and/or deep point of view. HOWEVER… it is also possible that there is a pacing issue.

PACING: Does the book lag anywhere? Are the slow parts just slow enough to let the reader take a breath, or are they so long that the reader gets bored? Can you concatenate the slower chapters to give the required information quickly so you can get back to the good stuff?

“I had a hard time connecting with the way the mystery unfolds.” This could also be pacing, but also ask yourself if there is a “build” in your mystery as each stone is unturned. Is the reader DYING to know whodunit?

I’d look over the manuscript again, thinking about each of these topics INDIVIDUALLY. I think you should only work on one of them at a time. (At least that’s what I do) It helps to keep focused, and gives you less of a chance of missing the opportunity to make a good paragraph GREAT if you are trying to accomplish too many types of edits at the same time.

This is probably the most exciting edit you will ever do… the one where little bells will go off in your head as you see the manuscript come to life. Have fun!

[BTW – just writing this has me thinking about my own manuscript, and a couple of things that I want to look at again, so THANKS for the push!]

So, there you have it. Rejection isn’t always bad. I remind myself that Fire in the Woods was rejected quite a few times, and I’d revised over and over before I received two rejections with feedback similar to above.

My next edit after that feedback got me a three book deal!

Keep submitting, and don’t be afraid to edit some more.

You can find Fire in the Woods and Ashes in the Sky at all these awesome bookish places!

Catch up with me on social media!

Comments Off on Anatomy of three very similar rejection letters

Posted in Author Advice

Tagged agent, bad rejection, dealing with rejection, edit, editing, fire in the woods, good rejection, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, query, Query letter, rejection, Rejection letter, submission, submit manuscript

My First Rejection Letter

Posted on March 23, 2013 | 26 comments

Okay, it had to happen sooner or later. After three publications, I’ve finally received the inevitable “slap” of a rejection. When I opened it and started reading, the email could have gone both ways, and then it slipped into…

“We are no longer able to reply to each query individually, but please be assured we consider every submission very carefully. Unfortunately, your manuscript is not a good fit for us at this time.”

Okay, well, it was a “nice” rejection. They didn’t say it stunk. They even asked to keep them in mind for my next project (yeah, it’s a form letter, but it was nice, and I will still keep them in mind. They are a great publisher.)

But…

I understand what people talk about now. Since this was an all-encompassing form letter, I have no idea WHY it was rejected. In fact, I don’t even know if they got past the query.

I don’t know

Are they glutted with Paranormal Romance right now? I don’t know.

Was the story too short? I don’t know.

Have they seen the plot before? I don’t know.

Was in not “Romancy” enough? I don’t know.

Did they not see the value of it as a continuing series? I don’t know.

Did they laugh at my inadequacy? I don’t know.

Honestly, when I first read it, I was not disappointed, even though I was really interested in that publisher. My reaction was more like. “Oh, okay, I’ll just look somewhere else”

But then those questions above started sinking in. I started questioning myself.

After a little while though, I dusted myself off. I like the story, and I have it out at a few other publishers as well. Someone will like it.

But while I’m waiting, I don’t want my cute little egg sitting in one basket. I’m actively seeking a few more publishers. One that I’ve found, I actually think I like MORE that my first pick.

We’ll see how it goes. No tears, no disappointment, just onward and upward.

It’s just the business, right?

How do you feel about “form” rejections?

Rejected and Dejected (kymlucas.me)
Writer’s Need A Thick Skin… (mandyevebarnett.com)
Writing Tips: How to Handle Rejection (shannonathompson.com)
The Art and Science of Querying (catherinelowrites.wordpress.com)
When We Write Letters, Part VII (rebeccatdickinson.com)

26 Comments

Posted in Road to Publication, Senseless Ranting

Tagged art, Fiction, Form letter, getting your first rejection, Literature, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, rejected manuscript, Rejection letter, Romance, Urban fantasy

A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine?

Posted on September 3, 2011 | 39 comments

I’m sitting here, staring at a rejection letter one of my writing partners received. “Not quite ready for publication at this time.” Bummer.

Rejection letters stink, but this one comes with an offer to resubmit through alternate channels if she decides to revise. Hmmmm. Sounds positive.

I open up the PDF file of the full manuscript, and find it redlined to heck and back. HOLY COW! Wait a minute, one thing they said is never use capital letters. Excuse me… quick correction… Holy Cow! Wow, it even looks better.

So, yes, this is a rejection, but I cannot help but be extremely positive. It took me three hours to read and take notes on all their comments. Did you get that? THREE HOURS Oops… Three hours! I can’t help but think, “Wow… if they put that much work into it, they must have thought it was worth something.”

Yes, they are gently suggesting a few pretty major changes, but most of them are minor, and they are really dumb mistakes that I realized my own manuscript is riddled with. Funny thing is, I didn’t even realize that these things were mistakes. I looked at my own pages, found three of the same mistakes in a single chapter I was editing, and fixed them with about ten seconds thought. It was so simple, and it flows so much better now.

So, was this just another rejection? Nope! No Way! This is a stinking gold mine!

I have my writing partner’s permission (keeping it anonymous) to post what I’m learning from this experience here on my blog. As I really digest everything, one topic at a time, I will send up a blurb about it. At the end, I think I will post all of the entries up as a permanent page.

This is stuff every writer should know, because it came right from a publisher. I know I’ve heard some of these things from other writers, but didn’t really understand the concepts completely, or just blew them off, but here is a manuscript (that I personally thought was awesome) that was rejected because of it.

I’ll be shooting up a new topic every few days, so stop by to be baffled by the simplicity of the mistakes that we are all making.

For now go back and look for capitalization in your manuscript. Yes, some pretty major published authors are out there getting away with it, but we don’t have the clout to argue yet, do we?

I hope you get as much out of this as I have!