Tag Archives: rejection

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!

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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

Lesson Four from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: And Then there was a Conjunction, or Was There?

Posted on October 27, 2014 | 13 comments

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine?

Originally, I was going to skip over this, because I thought it seemed a little obvious. But then I thought, maybe not.

This publisher simply hated the idea of “and then”. They said: “And then is not a proper conjunction. And is a proper conjunction… use for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so which are considered “proper” conjunctions.”

I did a search in my own manuscript, and found 73 instances of “and then”. Honestly, I was a little surprised to find so many in my story. The more I thought about it, every instance is like a laundry list “tell sequence”.

Matt did this, and then he did that, and then he did that. (It was not quite so blatant, but you get the idea) If you think about it, it’s kind of funny. I know when I was beta reading the manuscript for my BP, the “and then’s” did pop out here and there, but I just figured it was writing style. I didn’t particularly like it, but I let it go. I didn’t even realize I was doing it myself. Now that I’m re-reading with these comments in mind, they are popping out and blaring: No No No!

So, my advice is, do what I did: Do a search/replace on your manuscript just for starters. Search for “and then” and replace with “and then” (just make sure you spell it correctly) It won’t change anything, it will just give you a count of how many times you did it. If it’s a lot, search again and start editing!

This is an easy fix. I’m not saying this will bother every publisher, but if it’s a pet peeve of one publisher, it will probably bother another one, or two, or three. Personally, I’m not willing to take a chance and let them go now that I realize what I’ve done.

13 Comments

Posted in Gold Mine Manuscript

Tagged agent, conjunction, edit, editing, Gold Mine Manuscript, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, publisher, Publishing, rejected, rejection, should I use and then

Lesson Three from the Gold Mine Manuscript Red Line: Action Action, where is the Action?

Posted on October 20, 2014 | 19 comments

For an intro into where these tips are coming from, please see my post: A Full Manuscript Rejection, or a Gold Mine ?

I’ve heard contradicting opinions on this. Some people say exposition is important. Some people say don’t start right out with action because you don’t have a character basis of who to “root for” yet. Personally, when I’m reading something, I want to be slapped in the face immediately with excitement and fill me in on the boring stuff later. (Anyone who has read FIRE IN THE WOODS knows what I mean by this. 🙂 )

So, when my BP (Beta Partner) had a story that started with tons of talking and setting, I said, “According to what I’ve read, this is okay.” But, being the good beta partner that I am, I let her “have it” and told her I was bored. But, all the exposition stayed (with some trimming to six pages). (I’m not saying she trimmed for me… I believe she has five beta partners, so I’m sure there were a wealth of comments to revise from.)

Unfortunately though, the publisher found it to be an unnecessary character study and suggested cutting the first five pages completely. What was after these five pages, was a brief conversation of a dream that actually had relevance to the story (almost a page long) and then the action started.

The publisher’s commented that the first five pages were not engaging. What I got out of that, was that they didn’t want to see a few kids hanging out and talking. They wanted something to HAPPEN. The story actually does, I must admit, start right where they suggested… The dream is a foreshadowing, and then the action that is the catalyst that changes the MC’s life forever happens right afterwards.

Always start the story as close to the life changing event as possible

So, what gets lost in the first five pages? Well, the set up of the friendship between the two MC’s, which can be played out pretty quickly in the next pages, and (ouch) a lot of setting. To me, that’s no biggie, but my BP is a big setting person. She likes her imagery. Now she needs to work in her sweeping mansion and grounds into the action scenes or between them. It will be a little work.

Moral of the story: Setting is important, but not too much up front. Make sure something happens in the first page or so to drag your reader in.

Also see my post on how I changed (and am still changing) my first page after a contest judge didn’t find my first page exciting enough— and there was hardly any setting there at all!

Go back and make your first few pages ROCK! If you don’t excite the reader right away, they might put your novel down and buy something else.

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Tagged beta partner, beta reader, editing, Gold Mine Manuscript, jennifer eaton, jennifer M. Eaton, Manuscript, rejected, rejection

Writing to a Deadline Part 12: The Slap of a Rejection

Posted on April 30, 2012 | 38 comments

After a week of waiting… Rejected.

Wow. That stung. I read the email. Well, that’s not true. After the words “Not ready for publication at this time.” I pretty much skimmed it.

Two things stuck with me off the bat. George was an unnecessary character, and the opening was confusing. What?????????? George is the catalyst! Deep breath… don’t scream.

Being a good little camper, I shut down my computer, and walked away.

I stewed over it for a while. What were they talking about? How could they say these things?

Then I took my own advice. It was a nice day. I got on my bicycle, and just rode. I thought over those two comments, and cleared my head for an hour or so. Once I was able to deal with it, I went back to my computer to read it again.

It’s very hard to take your own advice when something happens to you. I have walked a few people through this very thing, but never myself. I’ve sent out work before, but they all saved me this heartache by not answering my queries at all. This time, I got the definitive “No”.

But was it really a no? I read it again. It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t completely a rejection either. They gave me a full-page type-written list of areas they thought were lacking in the story. Someone thought it through, and let me know everything they thought was a problem.

In my own advice to others: “If someone took that much time, they must have seen something in it that they liked.”

I printed out the page, went to my room, closed the door, and read it over and over. I realized that if I took their advice about the character George, that the characterization inconsistencies that they pointed out with three other characters would just naturally fall in line.

The last line of the email stated: If you would like to make changes and resubmit before the deadline date, please send the rewrite directly to “********”