Recently I participated in the #Pitmad in September. If you do not know what it is here is a brief explanation. You have the great opportunity to pitch your manuscript to editors and agents on Twitter with just 135 characters. This also means that for those next eight hours on Twitter you are watching the feed like a mad person, hence the Pitmad. I tweeted about two of my manuscripts every hour and knew that more than three of the pitches had more than 400 engagements. I had four agents favorite my tweets and I was very excited.
This meant that they were interested in my pitch and wanted me to query them. Out of the four agents I have heard back from three and one of them sent me this very personable rejection letter:
Hi Jessica,
Happy Sunday. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend so far. I’m sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I know waiting is the hardest part. I finally had a chance to read over some of the requested material for AN OCEAN OF SECRETS. I’m a lover of mermaids, and I loved the premise of this story. However, after reading, I didn’t feel a real connection to the main characters. In the first six pages we’re introduced to an underwater magical kingdom, but we have no idea who are characters really are. Getting to the action quickly is so important and I feel like you’ve done just that. But doing so while introducing our character’s personalities is important as well.
I’m so sorry I don’t come with better news. I do encourage you to pursue other agents because their views may differ from my own. I wish you the best of luck with your writing/publishing journey.
Good luck. Keep writing, you’re good at it!
Warm Regards,
A really nice agent
I took this letter to heart and I am now revamping this manuscript to this person’s specifications. After I cried for like hours.
Some writers would say that I shouldn’t rewrite anything and just try another agent, but what if she was right. Either way I was very impressed with the time this agent took in sending me such a detailed letter about her likes and dislikes.
I can say I have close to a hundred rejection letters and out of those hundred there are probably ten or so that were personable like the one above. When you have been working on your craft as long as I have (which is going on eight years) you can start to see what really works and what doesn’t. I know some writers get discouraged by the time they hit year three of querying but truly it takes as long as it does because of the wait time. One author I am friends with has an agent after eleven years of trying. Read about her story : http://theitsybitsywriter.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-i-got-my-agent-steven-chudney.html
Share your success stories. Everyone can learn from each other.
Have a great writing day!
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