How–and more importantly WHEN–you should use your rejections to help you improve your stories
I was recently talking with a writer who had reached out in a panic.
She’d started querying agents a few weeks ago and had just received her third rejection. She wanted to know if she should rush back to her opening pages and revise.
I advised her to definitely NOT do that…Yet.
That might be the solution, surely, but after just a couple of weeks in the trenches and only three rejections, it’s a bit too early to tell what those rejections mean.
Rejections can definitely be the magic tea leaves to help a writer decide what to do next. But how?
After querying three different manuscripts and clocking more than a hundred rejections between them before I received my yes, I have a few suggestions on how to analyze your rejections.
Did you receive a form letter rejection?
I hear you—how can you tell if it’s a form letter?
Form rejections usually are kind, noncommittal, and vague.
Thank you for submitting your story to me but I’m afraid I’m just not the right fit. This is a subjective business and another agent may feel differently. Best of luck. Blah, blah, blah.
A quick and easy way to confirm whether you received a form response is to check QueryTracker. Under each agent’s profile is an “Author Comments” section where writers track queries to that particular agent. Many will copy and paste their rejection emails into the notes so you can see how yours compares and determine if you received a personalized rejection or the same note that most other submitters received.
If you are only receiving form letter rejections, your first step is to take a look at your query letter.
- Does your story meet the genre requirements?
- Is your word count too short or too long for your stated genre?
- Is your stated genre clear?
- Does the query summary match your stated genre? (for example: your fantasy novel query should include a taste of the world you’ve built and its unique inhabitants and not read like it could take place on the set of The Office.)
- Is your query the proper length?
- Your query should include three to four brief paragraphs that cover the story hook, a summary of what happens in the book, and a short author bio.
- Typically around 300-500 words
- Is there a reason you are querying this particular agent?
- First of all, don’t query agents outside your story’s genre, make sure you are querying the agents that represent your style of work. Do your research!
- Clarify in your personalized intro why you are reaching out to this particular agent.
If your word count is wildly off or you wrote a suspense and the agent you are querying only represents romance, you will get a form rejection. These are logistical things you can learn about your agent list and your genre before you start querying.
If for some reason you are green to querying and didn’t do this leg work up front, STOP QUERYING immediately and make sure your story matches your genre and its subsequent requirements and that your query list would be interested in said story.
But there is another reason you may be getting form rejections–is your query compelling?
Your pages may be brilliant but an agent may not be getting all the way to them if the query isn’t selling your story.
While most authors will work with editors on their pages, swap pages with a critique partner, or at the very least employ beta readers, they sometimes skip this step when working on their query letters. It’s just as important to get feedback on this piece of writing.
This is an agent’s introduction to you and your work. You want to make sure this letter really shines.
If you’re receiving form rejections without additional page requests and the logistical things I mentioned above don’t apply (ie, you know your genre and you researched your agents), look at your query letter content. It’s an easier document to revise then going back into your manuscript and guessing at what might need to be changed.
Do your research on what makes a compelling query. I love The Sh*t NoOne Tells You About Writing podcast’s Books with Hooks feature as a resource on great queries–agents Carly Waters and CeCe Lyra analyze real queries from real writers. It’s a treasure trove of information. Also, look at resources like the late great Janet Reid’s Query Shark, Writer’s Digest’s Successful Queries, and Jane Friedman’s post on the Complete Guide to Query Letters.
I received help on my most recent query from book coach Julie Artz who specializes in query packages. Her insight and our back and forth made my query so much stronger. There are lots of coaches, like Julie and the team at BookWorks, who specialize in this part of the process.
Are you receiving requests for pages and then rejections?
Congrats! Requests for pages typically means you have a compelling query. You can skip all of the above.
This means, yes, it’s time to focus on your pages.
But how do you know what to focus on?
Look at the content of that rejection again.
Are you getting form rejections on your pages?
Ugh. That is the worst.
But before you panic, ask yourself:
- Do your pages hold up to the promise of your query? In other words, did the story that hooked them appear on the page? A fast-paced sounding query that opens with a slow description of water dripping on the window panes and doesn’t pick up the pace by chapter three may not be what the agent expected. Make sure your pages and your query reflect one another.
- Are your opening pages polished but the middle not so much? We naturally spend a lot of time on that first chapter, which is great when it means an agent requests more pages, but if they get those pages and they don’t hold up, this is a problem. Make sure your entire novel is ready to shine when you query, not just the first ten pages.
- Could this just be a matter of fit? Some form rejections simply mean that an agent is busy and while they like the premise and the pages in general, it’s not something they want to take on. This is the hardest to know, but also very likely. If you think your manuscript is polished and that you’re pitching the right folks, this could be a time to seek out another round of beta readers before guessing and revising for revising’s sake.
Are you receiving personalized rejections?
I get it. Sometimes these hurt more when the rejection is followed by a list of things the agent loved about your book. But, if you’re getting personalized rejections, this is the sweet spot. You don’t have to guess what the agent is thinking because they are telling you!!
Personalized rejections could run the spectrum from “I liked it, it’s just not for me” (which stinks but isn’t as personal as it feels. Dust off that query and send to five more agents on your list whenever this happens!) to specific feedback on what they see the problem in your manuscript to be.
The beauty of a personalized rejection with specific feedback means that you now have the opportunity to decide if you want to revise.
- If the feedback resonates (e.g., “the character fell flat on the page and I didn’t connect”), perhaps now is the time to take a break from querying and consider revising.
- If the feedback doesn’t resonate (e.g., “I think you should change the ending and move the story from Missouri to Puerto Rico to make it more interesting”), then perhaps it’s not the book for them. Next step? Send out five more queries to five better fit agents.
You are under no obligation to make changes based on any reader’s feedback, even an agent. Consider it, definitely, but in the end, you have to decide whether you want to incorporate that feedback into YOUR story.
The same goes for if…
You queried, sent pages, and have received a Revise & Resubmit request.
This can feel like the holy grail. Feedback and an open door with an agent? Yes, please!
REALITY CHECK: an R&R request does not mean that if you make the changes this agent will sign you (been down that road before), but it does mean they will take another look at your pages and may sign you.
I received an R&R on an earlier manuscript. I happened to agree with the changes and embarked on a large rewrite. That rewrite ended up making the story better, although the agent ultimately passed (which annoyed me at first after all that work, but what I know now is that this particular agent is phasing out of the business and therefore would not have been the ultimate long-term partner I had hoped for, so it all works out in the end, right?).
While the rewrite improved the story, it also made it shorter (I write lean as it is). For historical fiction, I missed the mark on the target word count. When I took the revised version out to new agents, I found myself in a deep stack of form rejections (see above about genre requirements). At the time, I was committed to the story as it stood and decided to shelve it instead of revise, but I definitely knew what the problem was and understood that continuing to send it out wasn’t going to help my manuscript’s cause.
If you receive an R&R, treat it like any feedback.
If it’s not how you want to adjust your story, thank them and move on. You are under no obligation to execute the R&R, it’s just a request.
However, it’s always a good idea to let the feedback sit with you and maybe even give it a good faith effort (in a separate document) to see if you like where the changes take your story. You may be surprised. And if you don’t like it, you’ve still got your original and can continue querying the original version.
LONG STORY SHORT
Be patient and persistent when querying.
Querying is hard. It’s hard to wait for responses, it’s hard to accept rejection, it’s hard to know what to do next.
But with a little analysis, you can be in control of the journey.
And don’t do anything after just three responses…unless of course you get personalized feedback from all three that all state the same problem!
Whatever you do, don’t panic!
Do your research.
Know your story.
Trust your instincts.
Keep querying.
Keep writing.
It just takes one yes.