Yes, I've been getting too many rejections. I've got umpteen novels out there circulating. Most of them come back with a twentieth copy of a form letter that's on the sheet crookedly and has not one shred of helpful advice. This is very disheartening.
But...once in a fortnight (is that two weeks)? If it is I mean once in a fortmonth (about twice a year) comes a rejection that is specific enough to give me really good advice.
That happened last week...only I didn't know it at the time. As soon as I read the words, "Thank you for sending me the first 75 pages of your novel," I knew what was coming next, and I wanted to rip and tear, but I restrained myself.
"I've now had the chance to read them, and regret to say," the letter read. This is where my heart started to lurch, "that I wasn't enthusiastic enough to want to represent the book for you," the agent continued. Your writing is good and this is cute in many ways, but I'm afraid I felt it went off in too many directions and changed focus too often. I didn't see a strong enough plot line and...
I stopped reading, threw it in a file and went away grumbling something like, "changed focus, didn't see a strong enough plot line...easy for you to say, did you even read it?"
Then last night I got an email from another agent I'd sent a query to way back. For some reason, I remembered the letter about changed focus and weak plot line and eureka! an idea came to me about how to link the plot together. It wasn't going to be a major revision either. I fixed the first 30 pages in an hour or so and sent it off to the second agent. Thank God for agents who live in the 21st century and will accept not only queries, but partials and even whole manuscripts. This way I don't have to wait to be rejected---I can send it and be rejected in the same day, sometimes in the same hour.
Now that I've sent out 30 pps, I wait to see if the first agent knew her stuff and if agent #2 agrees.
In this subjective business, who knows? But since about 10 agents turned it down the first way, and I could see how what I did strengthened the plot, it just might work!
More as the plot unfolds...
Keep reading and writing,
Carolyn
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