Rejections

I was going to write about Turn Sequences, today, and how that shapes an entire set of gaming rules. Instead I'm going to discuss/vent a little about rejections.

Rejections are a fact of the writing life. Experienced and oft-published authors can get them, though most of them land with the unpublished authors. They come in many flavors and types. In ascending order they would be:

1. a pre-printed letter without signature that says: "this is not right for us"
2. a pre-printed letter with signature that says: "this is not right for us"
3. a note that basically says "not interested" generally paperclipped to the manuscript
4. a single-page letter that basically says "not interested, thank you for showing this to me"
5. a single-page letter that says "no thank you", and gives suggestions for improvement of the story
6. a multi-page letter that says "no thank you in this incarnation" and gives suggestions for improvement, hinting that they'll reconsider after these changes have been made. This can be an e-mail as well as or in place of a letter with your manuscript.

See what's in there? Some of them offer suggestions for improvement. The least helpful don't give you any idea of what you can do to improve. It really helps if the agent tells you why they rejected the story. Saying it didn't excite them is a non-starter; it helps if you have an idea of what would excite them.

Reality check time. An agent goes to a Conference. They see 5-6 writers/hour for five hours/day, for at least two days. That's a minimum of 50 writers, and a maximum of 60. Assuming they requested a three chapter minimum from half of them would result in 25-30 manuscripts to read. And to represent it professionally it helps if they feel really excited about the story. They want to see it published, and they want to be able to infect an editor with that enthusiasm. Agents want to see a good story. They don't get paid if they don't sell stories to publishers.

So today Firestar came back from an agent I had pitched at PNWA in mid-July, and it had letter #4 enclosed. Not terribly helpful. Was there something missing in the synopsis/pitch that kept you from being interested? Was the concept wrong? Is there something I could have done that would have piqued your interest? What type of story are you looking for? Is there somebody you know who is looking for something like this?

None of the angst/hair-pulling of the first few rejections. Just a nagging series of questions without answers.