Manuscript Query Rejections
Wednesday Writing Weekly #63
Querying Rejections: How, What and Why
Rejection can hurt no matter how you may be used to it. Rejection is a part of the writing career. If you do not put yourself out there and submit your works for publication, then you are missing out on opportunities to advance. It’s a necessary evil but there are a few reasons it can happen. I hope to spread light on reasons you might not be aware of and ways to take advantage of this process.
“My Writing is Not Good Enough.”
This is a common thought after rejection. Rejection means you have failed, doesn’t it? Your writing is bad, not good enough, or you did a poor job. These are all normal thoughts but instead of beating yourself up or leaning into negative talk, it’s time to take rejection as an opportunity for reflection instead! Rejections can happen for the simplest of reasons from an agent not being a fan of your genre or maybe you had a few too many typos. But, if you complete a round of several queries and get rejected by everyone, this resounding rebuttal of your work calls for some of that reflection.
First, let’s see why you may get rejected.
Common Reasons for Rejection
When preparing your manuscript for querying, there are a few things you must do to give your writing a chance:
Submit Clean, Edited Work! NEVER turn in a manuscript that has not been edited. While there is only so much you can do on your own (unless you hire an editor) you will want to submit a finished work with little to no errors.
Follow the Rules: Agents have rules and forms you need to follow when submitting. For example, if they ask for the first five pages of your work and you decide to submit twenty—you will be automatically rejected for not following their process.
A Good Match: Check out my previous articles about this topic: How to Find a Literary Agent and Finding a Good Fit: Manuscript Querying. Do your research and look for agents that fit your work!
Word Counts: There are certain standards in the traditional publishing industry. Many fiction books, such as fantasy, are expected to be around 90,000 to 120,000 words. If you submit more or less, your work will need too much editing and trimming down (or adding to.) This signals an incomplete work that has not been made concise, or a disregard for the agent’s request of certain word counts. Your writing can be the best in the world but it if is not within the requested limits, it will not be looked at. I have a lot to say about this so stay tuned for next week’s article, Word Counts and Wordiness.
Rejections and Availability
While the above examples can be reasons why your work was not accepted by an agent, there are many other reasons as well that do not have anything to do with your work. Literary agents can receive hundreds or thousands of queries at a time. Because of this, agents will only accept queries when they are open for work. If their workload is full, they will reject any submissions during that time or will close queries until they have room to open them again.
For example, as of February 2024, here are some agents who are currently open for query submissions!
Julie Barer at The Book Group is open for commercial and literary fiction.
Carly Watters at P.S. Literary Agency is open for women’s fiction, upmarket adult, literary mystery and thrillers, contemporary romance, history, commercial adult, and more. (as well as non-fiction titles, too!)
The Benefits of Rejection
I recommend taking rejection as a lesson. It is a golden opportunity to review your work from a removed perspective. What are your story’s strengths? What are its weaknesses? Only this thinking can help you to improve because no writing is ever perfect. Writers know the endless cycle of editing. If you think your story is perfect and nothing can be changed to enhance it, I suggest taking a break and setting it down for a while. Time can lend wonderful insight into a work. I may love a piece or feel stuck on it but when I put something away and return to it a few days, weeks, or months later, the answers to all my problems or even the mistakes I was overlooking start to become visible.
When you get rejected many times, this can lead to reanalyzing your work as you find ways to improve it. Avoid saying, “But, my work is perfect!” or “This agent doesn’t know what is good for them.” Instead, think, “Where can I improve?”
Rejections and the Ego
Your work is your baby. Sending it out into the world can be terrifying and receiving rejections can feel like a personal attack on you and your work. I want to stress avoiding this train of thought. All too often online I see writers posting about their works and how it is the “best writing ever” and has the possibility of becoming a “prolific work” but then spend the rest of their post complaining about how they are being gate-kept or shot down by ridiculous agents who can’t recognize diamonds from dust. This is an addictive and harmful train of thought. This can get you stuck into a tunnel of “my work is perfect” or, “everyone hates me!” and therefore keep you back from taking advice or improving your work.
In short, don’t get stuck in a rut! You got this but, in your attempts to make it, don’t shoot others down along the way. See how you can improve your work and try again. This way of thinking will only hurt you and slow down your own success.
I have more about this topic in my article, “You Just Don’t Get It”. Check it out!
Conclusion
If you have been on booktok or bookstagram lately, talking about how to handle rejection and competition in the field has been a big topic. It’s important to put your all into your work but it is also important to leave room to listen and receive feedback. Literary agents are absolutely buried under manuscript queries and the entire traditional querying process is a very long one. I’m not saying that to depress you but rather, to help you prepare your expectations. Getting your work out there is a success. Getting feedback, rejections, or interest is a success. Continuously improve yourself and plan how you can make your manuscript the book you’ve always dreamed it could be.