Comments on: Selling the first one

By: KJC

KJC — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:15:32 +0000

I am going through the fire of agent rejects on my first book right now. I am finding two types of response.

a) Those that shoot a reply back in the first few days and give a comment such as “Not what I am looking for right now”, to “I’ll pass on this but thanks for the look.” These good people are in the minority.

b) Do not bother to respond ever!

For that reason I am just sending out queries across the board. The majority of agents want it all their way. “Give us your query excluding all others and we will not bother to advise when we cannot use it.” Ignorant and selfish to say the least and I for one am not playing. Note, I am not looking for feedback, just a reply, such a lot to ask for.

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:10:01 +0000

nct2 – You’re somewhat more likely to get a response if you put checkboxes on your return card, because you’re making it easier on the editor, but there are still those who won’t reply because there’s a house policy against it or because they’ve had bad experiences with doing something like this in the past. And really, an editor’s job is to choose stories, not to educate unpublished writers whose manuscripts they aren’t even buying.

By: nct2

nct2 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:33:49 +0000

Regarding feedback from agents and publishers, I’ve been thinking about including something like the following. Is it likely to work?

If my manuscript is rejected, please check all that apply.

This manuscript was rejected in
A. Round 1 (the slushpile)
B. Round 2 (does this have another name?)
C. Round 3 or higher

Because of
A. Poor writing quality
B. Plot doesn’t work
C. This kind of story isn’t selling right now.
D. I just don’t like this kind of story.
E. Other (specify)

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:41:53 +0000

fictionwriter – See the Jim Hines survey I referred to above – OK, it’s a small sample, but the number of people who knew somebody at the agency or house that took their book appears to be even smaller than I’d expected. It does happen, but…see the part of the post on “luck, good and bad,” above.

Julie – You’re welcome.

Beth – I’m afraid that when it comes to social media, I have no clue whatsoever, particularly since I don’t Twitter or have Facebook or Google+ accounts myself. I’ll try to remember the request when I have somebody update the blog format, but that’s probably not going to be for a good long while. Months, at the earliest. Sorry.

Amy – Um…OK.

Abby – I think that’s a very sensible approach, myself. (Of course, I would – it’s a lot like what I did, all those many moons ago.) Though it’s worth bearing in mind that agents and editors generally don’t have a lot of time to provide instruction or even explanations for EWBWs. Some houses even have a hard-and-fast policy of editors sending form letters only, to avoid possible misunderstandings. So don’t feel bad if you don’t hear much.

By: Abby Minard

Abby Minard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:44:08 +0000

To add to your comment to Remus, Beth Revis wrote 11 novels before she found an agent for Across the Universe. Meg Cabot queried every day for 3 years until she got an agent. My plan is to query agents on my first novel, if my partials and fulls get rejections I will query the second novel until that gets rejected, and so on. As far as how long I’ll query one until I give up and query a new one, I’ll just have to see on that. I won’t ever self-publish only because I need to feel validated by an agent that I’m good enough to publish. If my books get rejected, there’s got to be a reason. Each book I write, I will try my best to be a better writer. And nct2, I’m hoping to get enough feedback from agents as to whether it’s my writing, or just not their cup ‘o tea. I know that’s not always the case, but I hope at some point I’d get pointed in the right direction as far as rejections go.

By: Amy Armstrong

Amy Armstrong — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:33:06 +0000

Patricia, I think I love you.

By: Beth Browne

Beth Browne — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:54:01 +0000

Hi Patricia,

This is a great post and I have what may be a really dumb question but I’m asking anyway. I’ve been really boning up on my social media and I wanted to Tweet this post, but other than cutting and pasting the URL, I don’t see an easy way. Is it possible to put a Twitter button on your blog or a FB button or even maybe G+? I’m so impressed w/ this article I expect I’ll be reading more and wanting to pass them on to my writer peeps via social media.

Thanks!

By: Julie Musil

Julie Musil — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:17:26 +0000

I just found your blog, and I love it. Thanks for your thoughtful, honest posts about publishing. I appreciate it.

By: fictionwriter

fictionwriter — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:30:26 +0000

I’ve been reading the “How I got an Agent” on the writer’s Digest web site. A surprising number met someone who knew someone who was an agent or an editor. And then, there are the writers who coincidentally used to be editors at the publishing house who bought their book.

Luck of the Irish?

No matter, I still have faith that even though I have no connections, I will get published…and I’ve been doing this since the 1980s!

By: pcwrede

pcwrede — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:10:17 +0000

Remus – You know perfectly well what I’m going to say: you have to decide for yourself when it’s too depressing for YOU to stand, and what you’re willing to do for a next step. For some, the next step is giving up entirely; for others, it’s self-publishing at one of the many different possible levels. It depends on what you really want and what you’re willing to do in terms of effort, time, and money. Jim Hines did a fairly amazing survey of first novel sales that shows an average of 11.6 years to get that first sale, with the longest time-to-sell being 41 years. I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people aren’t willing to persist for 41 years.

Michelle – I agree (well, not with the “you’re crazy” part…) If you aren’t having fun, why bother?

Katya – I think it’s more correct to say that e-books are (finally!) exploding, and a lot of publishers are trying to take advantage of/figure out how to exploit this huge potential new market.

Mary – Yup, yup, yes, exactly.

Remus again – When you finally run out of markets, you put it away somewhere, and if and when you have time to revisit it far in the future when you are a famous published author, you revise it then. Lots of published authors have two or three unsellable novels in their trunks somewhere; R. A. MacAvoy told me once that she’d written sixteen unsellable novels before finally hitting gold with “Tea With the Black Dragon.”

nct2 – I think that’s a whole ‘nother post. Looks like I’ll be talking about this subject for a while…

Oh, and I’m sorry I didn’t get to respond in as timely a manner as usual. The computer’s been at the Geek Squad for the last couple of days, getting a virus cleaned off it, and I just this morning got it set up again.