10 Reasons Your Book Is Rejected (By Agents & Editors)
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- Rejection is par for the course in publishing but WHY are literary agents and publishers rejecting you? I'm sharing 10 reasons agents and editors may be rejecting you, from a bad query, to a bad book, to just not loving your book enough.
And these are just SOME of the reasons! There are many more, but when I talk to literary agents, editors, fellow authors, and consider my own experiences reading queries for Author Mentor Match, these are the ones that really jumped out.
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1: 1:25 Awful Query Letter - Query letter is a pitch letter for your book used to get a literary agent. Literary agents are essential for most publishers.
2: 3:26 Unpolished Writing - Your writing isn't good enough.
3: 5:00 Dead Genre/Trope/Idea - You've written something for a saturated or dead market.
4: 5:44 Starting in the Wrong Place - Start of your book is boring or confusing (even if it gets better later).
5: 6:56 Can't Sell It - Even a great book won't be published if agent/publisher thinks they can't sell it.
6: 8:05 Agent doesn't represent your type of book.
7: 8:13 You didn't follow the guidelines - Publishers and agents have guidelines for what they will accept. Don't send non-fiction to a fiction agent/publisher for example. VERY common mistake.
8: 10:26 The person evaluating your work doesn't like it for reasons of personal taste. Your book could be good.
9: 11:57 The publisher already has something very similar. Your book could be good.
10: 13:25 They just don't love it enough. It's not quite special enough for them to be passionate about. This could be a matter of their personal taste.
You're one of those unsung heroes, my friend.
You are the choosen one...
Thank You
As a former college English professor, I can’t tell you how many bad grades were simply due to not following directions. I would say 80-90%.
Or when the professor gives a rubric and includes items such as rough draft included or turn in date is in the MLA heading and then removes the points for not doing it. I have heard many complaints when fellow students got their papers back.
I thought you couldn't tell us how many. You just told us how many. :-P
Levi Hobbs hahaha actually that was an estimate because I couldn’t tell you exactly how many lol
As a current college English professor, I concur 🤦♂️
Alexa, I am a stylist/hobby writer, and I must say the golden eyes shadow with your copper hair is absolutely stunning!
Also, oof. This video that was hard advice that I needed to hear. Thank you for being so forthright but kind about it.
I think number 3 is the case for any steampunk novel. Steampunk is a dead genre in trad publishing unless the series started back when it was a big trend (late 00s mid 10s). And if I remember correctly steampunk never took off that well in YA but rather in adult urban fantasy, especially in pnr.
But interestingly enough steampunk is booming for self publishing because it has a huge niche online.
Sci-fi and all the subgenres of sci-fi are a tough sell in general. So glad to read Steampunk is booming in self pub.
Yep! YA publishing tried to make "fetch" happen with steampunk and it simply never took off. It's a great example of "the books are not bad, YA pub just never found a market for it so they won't touch it." Every so often something steampunky does slip in, though, which is nice. But they're usually labeled as some other genre :)
This was painful to watch but I was able to make through. And I agree. At age 16, I thought I had written a good story and sent it to a publishing company. And of course, it was rejected. At first, I thought they didn't like me but now that I'm twenty-three and read back to my old manuscript, I realize that both the story I wrote and the query were horrible. Lol. Hopefully, I'll learn from my mistakes and have better luck next time.
Will you do a video on dead genres? And the best ways to determine what is “in” right now.
I think one dead genre is most likely poetry.
I read the title "the reason your books rejects you" and at first I was like wtf that means? 😂
Now I want this video XD
"The reason your books rejects you", that could be a good story. A young witch is given her first grimoire but it refuses to open or assist her. Eventually, when it does open up it will occasionally switch spell ingredients on her.
@@RoseKindred
I would love to read that story. I would be better if it would make fun of everyv known cliche in the world, be it movies, books and series.
Now, I could make a video on that! There's no worse critic of me than my own writings!
@@RoseKindred The grimoire could talk and just judges the girl out loud
"Sleeping at 10pm? pfttt"
"Are you seriously eating this pizza?"
"OMG WHY WOULD YOU DRINK THIS CUP OF WATER"
Yeah, I will absolutely read that.
The feeling when you have written something, you think is is ready and you print it out...only to realize later on there are errors. 😑
My worst fear is the "bad timing" or not being able to stand out in a crowd. That is the one that would hit me the hardest because that seems to be trend for me professionally, "we love this, your great, but..." I pray every night that the publishing gods will be kind.
I hear ya.
In my old query, I had an agent respond saying she liked it, but didn't connect with the writing.
6 months later, I'm rewriting the entire story, and so far, have trippled the word count, and my writing is so much better.
Don't, whatever you do, triple the word count.
@@leenaronalds4155 that makes sense but cupcake could be someone who was a minimalistic author who simply severely underwrote and just changed into someone who did lengthy sentences and moved to the opposite end of the spectrum instead of going overboard.
I love Query Shark so much!! It's the best! Harsh but needed!
Ah, I got that ‘doesn‘t stand out enough in a competitive field‘ rejection... Thanks for shedding light on this, Alexa!
I'm subscribed to a lot of writer-help channels, but you stand out from the crowd. You're relatable, honest, and optimistic. D.C. gang unite!
I always appreciate your knowledge and insights. Thank you so much for sharing!
#2 is a big one for me... I may have to rethink how to pitch my book so that, while there may be elements that are popular in a “dead” genre, that’s not how I want the first impression of the book to be because there’s other focal points I can use to market the book. :)
I did receive “so close, not for me” rejections, but it was such a nice piece of feedback, I didn’t feel bad.
Thanks for this informative video!
I’m totally going to read The Query Shark archive! Thanks for the rec! 🤓
Years back that was my fave blog but it broke my heart! So many queries were a million times better than mine and still needed tons of work. 😑
Wow! Useful and tough. Thanks. I’ll check out those resources.
I love your top, Alexa!
Brilliant content as always ❤️
Thank you so much for your valuable insights ! As I'm planning to approach the traditionnal publishing industry, these tips are so useful !
I've watched 6 of your videos so far and I really appreciate all the advice and tips! I'm taking notes on each video too ;)
This video is so important. I'm still stunned by how many agents mention online how querying writers slate their clients/claim to make millions/as good as J K Rowling. Fantastic tips 👏
I know this video was published a while ago, but as someone who just received a handful of rejections with a comments along along the lines of "this just wasnt for me" I do have hope! My plan is to rewrite my query and try again. Thank you for this video!
The most engaging and amusing book person I have come across in a long time. I found this lady to be compulsive viewing. She so reminded me of Meryl Streep.
I seriously praise Cthulhu everyday that you make these videos
will this wake the great dreamer?
@@KreativeHogwartsLegacyGUIDES I hope so, this sanity thing is enough to make one go insane.
This is why I like the idea of self-publishing. Traditional publishing sounds like Hollywood these days: fit our algorithms or get lost. Not exactly great for experimentation or creativity. Leads to stale products (like most movies these days).
You always share such great insight! I'd love to hear you expound on dead genres and how to know if you're writing for a saturated market.
Dresden Files fan! I've found the right channel to watch!
I’ve received four rejections so far. Two were subjective and two had no specific reasoning. Not given a reason can be so frustrating but I assume it is either my query or writing 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️ great video!
Always love seeing your videos! You're honestly the most positive and inspiring channel I watch
Also: Could you do a video about incredibly niche, dying or dead genres, particularly in the YA market? And tips about reading the market? I'd love to have insights about this from someone with your experiences
Wish I had this list when I started publishing ha! Another great video, Alexa :0)
As with most things, you must make sure you follow directions when querying
The video glitches out at the very beginning halfway through the word query, and my eyes popped out of my head at what I thought you said
Being rejected by editors is a whole new horrible experience!
Thank you.
It sounds like finding a good fit between author style and agent can be tough. I hope that when it happens to me I’ll see it’s not necessarily my writing but the fit.
Hey Alexa I LOVE watching your channel! You teach me SO much and your hair is always on point (that's the important thing here right?)!
I have a question for you! If you have an agent and the MS doesn't get picked up by a publishing house, does that mean it's shelved for good? Or can you then self publish it or re-shop it (say to digital presses that don't require an agent) afterwards? This hasn't happened to me, but I'm curious about what happens if it can't get picked up by a publishing house through your agent!
I'm fairly new to your channel and I'm working on what I'm hoping is the final draft before I start querying. I loved all of this information and I'm defintely going to be watching it again just before I start the query process.
What is the Author Mentor Program you mentioned during the "follow the guidelines"?
I run an author mentorship program. We pair agented and published trad pub authors with aspiring writers (with complete manuscripts). Next round will be in spring 2020 :)
Won't you look at that! I was just about to check your channel for new videos
These hints work to the comic book industry as well :) Great video!
But what if you know "the magic formula to create a popular story", but the mainstream subject is something you hate to the guts?
This. 👏👏👏
I love these videos. You give such great insight but you keep it HONEST. It definitely gives me ideas of what I need to look for and focus on as I go along.
I am curious about dead genres though. I have an *idea*, but I was wondering if you had some current examples of dead genres/tropes?
Oh yes! I wrote in two! Haha. So in YA, time travel and superpowers are almost IMPOSSIBLE to sell as a debut. So many YA time travel and superpowers books have failed that publishing just won't touch them, and that trickles all the way down to agents. PLUS, honestly, just being on the other side now and seeing how many people write these books--I see pitches on Reddit, they're subbed to AMM, pitched in pitch contests--most of them blur together and are very same-same. Standing out in these tropes is HARD. And people can say allllll they want "Marvel movies with superheroes are huge, so that will trickle down to publishing" IT DOESN'T. It hasn't been true for 20+ years and it won't be true in two. I break a lot of hearts with this one, but I learned the hard way. A year and a half of drafting and revising, then lost my agent and failed in queries with a superpowers book :D
Also, there's the broad genre of dystopia--still super super dead in YA. Publishing ground that genre into the ground. Post-apoc too. Vampires have been dead as a doornail until very very recently--and now only the savviest vampire books have a shot of getting in (AFAIK, only famous/established YA writers are getting to pub vampire books currently). Paranormal and urban fantasy, generally, are pretty dead in YA. You have to be clever about how you write them/label them to get in... and for example, all paranormal was dead until witches started slowly creeping back about 3 years ago (sales) for books that started pubbing in 2018.
YA sci-fi is dead again--I got in during a window, and then the window closed behind me. It'll come back around, as it always does, but I got into YA right as the last window was closing, so my first 4 years/2 books fell into "dead genre" space and then I got lucky with book three. So any author querying a YA sci-fi right now... if they're getting a lot of rejections, it could largely be the genre.
@@AlexaDonne 😮😮😮
So...keep on top of the market trends when you're querying. Right?
I can't believe so many of my favs are dead right now. Though I find the superpowers thing kind of funny in the fact that magic seems to be kind of a big thing on the shelves right now and honestly it can be chalked up to the same type of thing BUT the presentation of that magic/power seems to be more focused on the race/species/job of the char themselves and not like "I woke up today with Lazer beams for eyes", so I suppose it really does have to do with how it's presented. 🤔
@Alexa Donne Is contemporary fantasy, not urban fantasy, making a comeback? It seems like recently there’s been fantasy set in a contemporary setting being published in YA again.
@@nootnewt9323 Contemporary fantasy is a labeling cheat being used to sneak UF back in... though it's NOT UF the way UF was in 2008, or as currently exists in self-pub. That's the trick with YA--it's moved on past what these trends looked like when they were super huge (dystopian, urban fantasy, paranormal) and we're slowly feeling our way to what these genres will look like when they are "reborn" in YA. So something like The Devouring Gray can get published, and something like it might have been called UF or paranormal 15 years ago. Now it's contemporary fantasy.
@Alexa Donne
Even though the superpower genre is dead, could something where ~80% of the population have superpowers work? Like, it's the new "normal" and not having it, having powers too dangerous, or having powers too weak is looked down on by society? I had tried doing an inversion of the superhero trope (everyone but the protagonist has powers) but superpowers are too fun not to write.
Or could a dystopian set in a different country (Mexico, Japan, Norway, etc.) make a book stand out? (Again, another guilty pleasure genre).
Do you think the super power genre will ever circle back around?
P.S. Sorry my message wasn't exactly eloquent or concise.
This list makes me feel a lot better, mostly lol. Those out-of-your-control ones are scawwy doh. Thank you for all your insight, I'd be so lost and terrified without your channel 💜💜💜
Also, why would anyone not follow the rules and be mean in their query letters? I don't get people. Tsk tsk.
hi, im finding it hard to figure out what genre my book fits into as I've not seen a story like it before. what genre would a fictional life story about a man who joins a gang for the approval of his farther who used to be in a gang then seeing how his life play-out and the events with in it be in? i don't think it would be classed as a drama and i don't think it would fit as being a horror, its kind of like a fictional documentary that you live through the events of the characters life as an onlooker as if you were a 'fly on a wall' if you get wat i mean.
love this video and your channel, so many gait tips💙💙💙
I love your videos!! I'm hoping to go on sub this fall/winter and number ten is my biggest fear.
Omg good luck. Being on sub is H A R D.
Thank you! On the hand, I can't wait since I've been revising with my agent for six months already. But I also know how hellish it's going to be and I'm dreading it! Terrified.
I find number 9 confusing. What would cause novels to be so similar that they could publish both?
There are some many stories that follow the same beats as Starwars. Certainly you could have several books of the same general type of book.
I'm not yet published and I come from a foreign market, so maybe my views are a bit twisted here, but I feel like getting a rejection AT ALL is proving that you're half-way there. In Germany it is pretty common to never get any answer to your query, so receiving a negative one - even just a standardized e-mail - means that at least they read your letter and possibly the first page of what you send them. And that alone teaches you something.
Could you do a video on tropes you hate?
That is a great idea. There is something that I recommend doing. Watch multiple videos about bad tropes list. Watch them from different CZcams channels. I did this and found it really helpful. It is best to pay attention to tropes that pop up over and over again. The more people hate the trope the more likely that it is bad in general. So it is probably a good idea to avoid it. The main reason why certain tropes are hated is that they are cliches. They are not inherently bad. They are just overused and people are sick of them. There are whole lists of cliches, and they can go by genre. So I recommend looking through those. Some tropes are bad because they are problematic and disturbing. There can be PC issues like being racist or sexist. There can also be issues like romanticizing abuse. I reccomend learning about tropes.
I came for the knowledge. Now I’m stressed about not writing fast enough to keep up with the market
I have a video on writing to the market! Don't worry about it. Honestly, you mostly can't. Trends are hard to predict and publishing is always 2-3 years behind what you see on the shelves. You can not write something that is firmly dead, but it's generally not advisable to try to chase what's "alive."
Don't follow writing trends. What may be fashionable today will be stale tomorrow. Write what you love, and write it well and with passion, and the rest will take care of itself.
"You might have a better chance than you think."
Her face XD
Cracked me up!
I fall under #2. I have great, funny ideas for my absurdist scifi, but I absolutely dread having to actually write it down.
I wish it was easier to tell where I'm messing up (been in that rejection world for over a year). All I ever get are form letters. Maybe that's just code for "your writing is bad"... I'd be happy with "the beginning was boring" or "no one would buy this". Like, anything would help.
The only one I know I'm not doing wrong is that I am careful to follow guidelines lol.
Well, and I don't insult people in my query lol
The problem with forms is you really have no clue what the reason is b/c they send them to almost everyone, good and bad. Sometimes, yeah, it's bad... but more often it's "not special enough" or "won't stand out" or "I had a bad burrito and I'm not in the mood" lol. It's so subjective? I know it feels like stumbling around in the dark!
Are you getting any requests? If not, workshop the query. If the query and pages seem fine, it could just be market.
@@AlexaDonne def taking my query over to that subreddit! I've workshoped it with writer friends, but more eyes is better! I've only gotten one request for more pages, alas.
I'd settle for "wasn't in the mood" or "I don't like cats" lol. Anything to give me an idea what I'm working with. But I know that's the road we all walk.
I feel that my biggest mistake (besides all my possible typos, blindness...) is that I'm probably not commercial enough. I'll just keep on trying until I find the agent that would be fine with my work.
It's honestly hard to strike that perfect commercial balance. It takes time to figure out what makes a book commercial, and whether you want to write the book that is commercial. And not every writer is commercial or has to be... but if you're not, it definitely might be trickier in YA specifically (a very commercial category). But there are agents and publishers who like quieter or niche work!
@@AlexaDonne that is true. I don't want to be super commercial. Also, my project isn't YA. It's just sci-fi because the time span of the story goes for many years in the lives of the characters, which in itself scares me because it seems the majority of the market, not just YA has books that take place in short periods of time. So yeah, this is a tough game and I know it. I just need to find my agent.
Thank you.
@@DalCecilRuno Just lately there was a series of four books also talking about whole life Neapolitan Novelsץ It goes something like 60 years.It even has mini-series, so you'll be find :)
@@sharonefee1426 thank you! I haven't heard of that series. I miss a lot of things because, I can barely see stuff. So thank you. That's a relief. 💜
I know that my book’s starting is boring as hell. I know that. When i realised it is important, I was already send to punlishers :( Kinda sad. Then I cant fix cause they started to read. I actually dont know what to do. I want to fix and send them again but it is ok to send same book that rejected before?
People seriously degrade the publisher/agent in a query letter? That’s nuts. I haven’t had to write one yet but I’d think a person would do the correct research to do it correctly and know that you have to play the game and kiss ass or at the very least be respectful and nice.
Yeah it's bonkers. I know at New Leaf, Suzie Townsend has gotten queries that slag off Red Queen specifically. Some people have no common sense! And then they're outraged when they don't get an offer lol.
The reason my book is rejected is it doesn't exist. It's always a work a progress and a bunch of sticky notes with ideas.
How do you find THE literary agent? I think it would be a good topic for a video. You already got 2 so I think you probably know good things to say about it
Hi Alexa. How do you go about finding out the correct people or places to submit to? I am writing a horror/drama book right now by the way. Love your site!
I have a video on how to find agents to query that should help!
@@AlexaDonne Thank you! I am still a long ways from being done, but it is great to know I have a resource to go to when I am done. Thanks again.
I have seen books that have Brothels as a genre but put them in a fantasy world could that work? as a book, because I never read a fantasy brothel book I have seen a few and It makes me want to write one. I am an autistic writer who struggles with his projects that like explore fiction ideas a lot even the dirty and dark genres if that makes any sense. It that bad for me wanting to write like that? it doesn't mean all my books would be like that I just like to explore that's all. Would I get rejected for creating a fantasy brothel story? It probably needs a subplot to keep it interesting.
If a publisher doesn't feel like talking your book. hey, there's another! It's not a dead end.
How to know a genre is dead? Ty
Where's the best place to check current trends and what might be up and coming? I can only gleam so much from a book store.
I have a video about writing to trends which covers how I keep on top of things, with plenty of links in that description box!
@@AlexaDonne Thanks. I'll take a look at that one.
Do you have a video of the guidelines?
Indigo RAINBOW i’ve never looked into publishing personally but from what i’ve heard each company has different guidelines and lays them out on their website or whatever
But how do I know if a genre is dead? (I'm aiming for steampunk atm, would that be considered 'dead'?)
Look at books on book shelves, deal announcements, agent MSWLs, etc. Steampunk is dead in YA, but not outside of YA, AFAIK. In YA, writers have to be clever about not pitching a book as steampunk, but rather incorporating elements but pitching a work as another genre. For example, Tara Sim's TIMEKEEPER and Rosiee Thor's TARNISHED ARE THE STARS are both steampunk/have steampunk elements but were pitched and sold as sci-fi romances. (But, sci-fi is also a tough sell in YA and I know neither of those books had an easy publication journey, though they did make it!)
@@AlexaDonne Ah okay, thanks for your quick answer! 😁😁
just walk into a bookshop and see what's selling, and what isn't.
So an agent (if they like you) will find a publisher to sell your book to?
Lol, I'd actually be interested in reading the book of someone who writes a query letter saying YA is shit while submitting a YA novel they wrote.
I’ve already been rejected by two agents, and working on my possible third and fourth, but everyone has been, Great book concept just not a fit for me. Don’t know how to take it 🤷♀️
I can't imagine how that sucks. Especially when it's not something you can just easily look at and fix/change. (Also, can I say how impressive it is that you've written so much? And queried? You should be so proud of what you accomplished so far!)
Katya thank you SO much for the encouragement! It’s what I needed to hear during this time!
I went to a publishing workshop, and the speaker said for her first book, she made a list of 35 agents to BEGIN with, and queried seven at a time! To me, sounds like you are doing amazing and making progress.
Breana Johnson Thanks! I went to Agent Query and I’ve got two lists one is Queries sent by Email or Form and the other Snail Mail. I do love QueryTracker too! I’m still waiting to hear from 3 other agents, according to QueryTracker one of the agents has responded to all the other query’s submitted after me. So 🤞
Would you consider paranormal YA a “dead genre”?
In YA, it's dead-ish. It's the very onset of a zombie plague, maybe. Like, it's been dead a LONG time. At least eight years? But slowwwwwlllyyyyy I've seen a few deals start to pop up, starting about half-way through 2018. Vampires are now on a few MSWLs, though so far I've only seen deals for established, famous authors. I've seen a few ghosts. It goes hand in hand with "contemporary fantasy is the new urban fantasy" and UF often intersects with paranormal... I'm seeing a few books pop up that have the tropes we love from those genres, but people are using new genre labels and pointedly not calling things paranormal or UF. I'm very hopeful it's coming back.
I'm a little late to this party and it might be a simplistic question, but in your professional opinion, should you only send 1 query at a time or send out a few at once and see if anything sticks?
I think small batches of 2-3 is smart. If you wait for one to respond, it could take ages.
@@AlexaDonne Thank you! :)
it all comes down to one thing and one thing only.... luck.
"We already bought something like this" = we gave your idea to our star author to rewrite, so this letter protects us from your theft claim.
That doesn't really happen in publishing. Star writers have their own ideas.
Also I literally know the author in question--so I know for a fact when their book was written and sold (before mine). They're also nothing alike except for space. It's a small industry. Hard to pull one over on each other. And "have one just like it" can be so so broad. Literally "we already have a book with space as a setting."
@@AlexaDonne ok, thanks. Maybe I'm just jadded from other industries I've worked in.
@@CayenneTravels I mean definitely be careful! But I don't think publishers routinely are stealing from books that are subbed. The agents would call them out for it, I think!
Sometimes the reason your book is not published is more so because it's badly edited or is not well writen rather than because your plot or premise is bad.
If it is number ten, would you suggest self publishing?
Depends on the situation and what you want to do. Like, if it's a lot of agents who have said this, so you know you have a good book that just isn't landing... then you have to decide how you want to debut. Once you debut as self-pub, you don't really get to debut again in trad--not unless you're changing your name or a LOT of time has passed (and, thus, many books later). If you know you want to debut in trad pub, you have to write another book. But sometimes, honestly, self-pubbing something that just isn't landing in trad pub is the way to go. Great books do get rejected by trad pub for many reasons and can find great success self-published. That said, know your category/genre and how it's likely to perform in self-pub, and do your due diligence re, editing, page setting, cover, marketing, etc. if you go for it.
Just curious, what would you consider a dead genre?
There are many examples and it varies by timing and category, but in YA, some good examples are steampunk books, superheroes (contrary to what people hope/believe, superpower YA DOES NOT SELL, not from debuts), time travel, dystopia, paranormal, urban fantasy. Now, nothing stays dead forever (except superpowers, seriously), so within paranormal we've seen witches creeping back in, and vampires very recently as well. Urban fantasy has been rebranded as contemporary fantasy, and certain takes on the genre can get through. But for years, labeling your YA book paranormal or urban fantasy was the kiss of death. It told the agent upfront "this is not sellable." Dystopia is still SUPER DEAD in YA.
@@AlexaDonne Thank you.
Always remember these were said (poorly paraphrased versions):
We estimate that your target audience would be preteen boys who less likely to buy books written by a woman (yeah that is no better way of paraphrasing that): Why JK Rowling was not credit as Jo Rowling when the first Harry Potter came out.
No one likes blanks so you can’t call the hero blank. And you want him to be a teenager and have person problems. Do you even know what a blank is? they don’t have personal problems and teenagers can only be sidekicks. This is the worst idea I have ever heard: Marvel’s reaction the original Spider-man pitch. (Blank translations: Spiders, Spider-man of course, superhero)
Sure enough Harry Potter was published as written by JK Rowling and was a hit with both genders of all ages. And Spider-man was published in the last issue of a failing magazine only to be turned into a series months later and the rest was history.
What are these dead genres?
So this type of person's logic is: "I want to get a job in this industry; let's insult everyone in it while I'm querying."
Seriously wtf?
Me: Yes, finally, I got done with the book. It's been months and months editing the beginning, middle, and end. Aww man. I can't wait for this book to be published.
*Sends it to the Agents and editors*
3 days later
*hears a knock on the door*
*Opens the door*
Me: So, how did I do?!
Agent: It was garbage. Complete garbage.
Me: O_OAfter months of working on it, it gets rejected?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Edit: This did not actually happen. I'm showing you guys an example of what I'm afraid of writing my very first story.
Got a questions for you.
What literary agents told you #8?
why would they do this? I mean if they enjoy the genre and the book is written well, why would reject the book?
so please answer my questions, please.
Why... would you want to read something that does something you don't enjoy? If someone queries you with a mermaid book but you don't like mermaid books, you'll reject it. It's not for you. That example, by the way, is from Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary, who has openly discussed, on the agency Tumblr and on panels, that mermaids squick her and thus mermaid books are auto-rejects for her. My agent doesn't like grim, relentlessly dark books, so she rejects them. She doesn't enjoy reading them, so she is the wrong person to represent them. I... don't think this one is particularly outrageous?
@@AlexaDonneThat doesn't make any sense because I can make a "mermaid book series" that is amazing New Leaf Literary and yet they won't even look at it. I followed their rules so they can read at least. right? I mean I did wrote a book for them to enjoy the story and the characters not just mermaids. If the characters are bad I understand that, but not a mythical creature like a mermaid. I can think of one main character that is a mermaid in a movie named The Little Mermaid. So am I wrong about this? Since they like fantasy, right?
@@jameschristopher5601 You... are either joking or really don't understand how taste works. Would you read a 400 page book about something you don't like? If you would, then you must read every single story ever written (and watch every TV show and film in every genre ever made)... which you don't. Come on. Our tastes and interests drive what we read. Literary agents are not charity readers. They read to find projects to represent. They won't waste their time on something they don't like.
@@AlexaDonne you're not listing to me. I am talking about the core of the story not surface level stuff . Think about it. If the story is good, no matter what the main character is it could be published right?
1: IF the story was good I would read a 1000+ page book no matter want is in the book.
(I was joking about the mermaids story) I am really thinking writing that mermaid story but I got another story to write which has different versions of mermaids.
@@jameschristopher5601 It doesn't matter if a story is good if it's not the kind of story an agent wants to read. That's it. That's subjective taste.
Let's see...you've published three books, two of which are rip-offs of Jane Eyre, slapped on a load of eye shadow, and now you're an expert?
Right. Sure.
I apologize but your overacted style of talking annoys me to hell. It is shame because otherwise you give quite good advice and you seem to be a really experienced, smart and kind person, and I would be curious about your writing.
Everyone has different preferences, but I think it's a bit unfair to assume that you know what a stranger's "normal" speaking style might be or to imply that they ought to speak a certain way. People don't communicate in only one set way in daily situations, let alone on camera or in "teaching mode."
Do they tell you the reason why they reject you or do they just reject you?