Blogger: Rachel Zurakowski
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
When an agent sends a rejection letter, different types of rejections mean different things. Here’s the inside scoop, as I see it, on four main forms of rejection:
The Plain Old Rejection (usually sent for rejecting query letters):
This letter will say something like, Thanks, but no thanks. It means that the project isn’t right for that agent for one reason or another. If you continue to receive these rejections from every agent you’re submitting to, consider revising your query, or maybe it’s time to move on to a new idea.
The ‘Revise and Send Again’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):
This rejection letter will have some revision notes in it. This usually means that your proposal or manuscript sparked the agent’s interest, but the agent knows that it needs to be revised in some way to have a chance in the current market. These rejections usually ask for the project to be sent again, if the suggested revisions are made. If you receive one of these rejections, be sure to follow through and send that revised project back to the agent. (Agents hate to make suggestions, only to have the potential client never resubmit but instead shows the new and improved version to another agent–who, of course, thought it was genius!)
The ‘Any Other Ideas?’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):
If you receive a rejection asking if you have any other ideas for projects, this typically means that the agent enjoyed your writing, but didn’t think that your idea would work well in the marketplace. You’ll want to write back to the agent with a list of project ideas and an estimated date of when he or she could see a proposal, if you aren’t finished with the writing yet.
The ‘This Project Isn’t Right for Me’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):
This type of rejection is used as a thanks, but no thanks rejection for proposals and manuscripts. It means that something in your query letter sparked the agent’s interest, but when he or she looked at the writing sample and examined the idea more closely, it wasn’t a good fit. If you continue to receive this type of rejection, stop submitting your project and consider revising.
I hope this is helpful to you! Tomorrow we’ll talk in detail about how to handle rejection.
Definitely a helpful post! I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Rachel, on a purely personal note, a friend of mine has recently submitted a manuscript to you (after you read her query, etc.) – and we are DYING over the “Let’s Talk About Rejection All Week!” posts. LOL
It’s always so important to remember that publishing is a business, not a ministry, and an agent is rejecting a particular work, not the person. As I wrote last month, we receive something like 20 queries a day–it’s physically impossible to represent so many projects and a beautifully written book just may not be what we know is selling. We’ve had to reject many projects we’ve personally liked–because we have to stay in business and thus represent projects we think will have a good chance of selling.
And Rachel’s comment from yesteday is absolutely germane–we feel badly after a day spent sending out rejections.
Nice! Thanks for the insight into the different types of rejections. I hadn’t heard of the “Any other ideas” rejection before. It makes sense, though.
Great post.
Miss Britt, I’m in the same boat as you : ) It’s good though to be prepared is what I’ve come to decide. Even if it’s scary timing lol.
Very helpful post! We writers often get rejections and wonder “why?” This narrows down the wondering just a bit. Thanks!
Thanks for the great post, as always. I appreciate all the information you share here!
I didn’t know there were so many different types of rejections and that some are laced with a second chance. Thanks for the insight! It is very helpful. I can’t wait to visit your next your next stop on Rejection Trail.
I do have a quick question. After sending a proposal, how long should one typically wait before receiving one of these rejections?
LOL! Everyone is safe this week! I’m too busy blogging to be rejecting projects. 🙂
Michelle, thanks so much for the wise words. I agree 100%.
Alicia, great question! At Books & Such, we TRY to respond to proposals within 8 weeks, but sometimes we are traveling (visiting publishing houses, attending conferences, etc.) and that makes a timely response next to impossible. Every agency has a slightly different response-time policy, so I can’t answer for everybody.
I do think it’s totally okay for an author to write to check in on a requested project if the agent hasn’t responded after about 8 weeks. Sometimes projects get lost on the way to our office, so it’s always a good idea to check in with us.
Ha! She liked my query and requested my proposal, I am also “dying” to know!!