Dear O'Abby: How should I reference a past submission when querying a new book?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm about to query a new book I've written and a couple of the agents I want to query are agents who rejected my last MS.  Should I reference this in my new query?  Not that they rejected it, but that I have queried them before.  Is there an industry standard way to do this?

Reverentially,

Rejectoid

Dear Rejectoid,

That's a good question and like so much of publishing, it depends.

If you got a form rejection or worse, a no-response-means-no, then don't mention it.  It won't add any value to your new query.

If you got a personalized response or the agent requested pages, then yes, you should mention it.  If they were interested enough in your previous work to talk to you about it or request pages, then they're likely to remember (or to look back to remind themselves) you and that could be beneficial.

There is no real standard way to do this, but something along the lines of, "you requested the full manuscript of my previous novel,  The Long Car Journey."  If they suggested you query them with your next project, reference that too as it means they liked what they saw enough to think you have potential.

Hopefully that helps!

X O'Abby

On Rejection

Like a lot of us here, I want to make writing a career. But because I’m at home 24/7 with so many other things calling out to me, I get distracted. So…I spend a lot of time playing video games. For a while, I was in a pretty bad rut – lights off, shades pulled, drinking beer and eating Belgian Doritos while slumping in an Ikea chair and hunting down bandits in some cave in Skyrim. But then I had this great idea: I should try to become a writer for video games!

Yeah. Yikes. Like I said, it was a low point.

I applied to my favorite game studio on a whim with a simple open application – “hey, if a job comes up, I’d like to be considered,” that kind of thing – and, amazingly, after a couple months I got a follow-up email asking me to do a writing test! So I did it, sent it in, and then heard nothing for another few weeks. Right at the point where I thought they weren’t going to contact me again, I did get a response, and they wanted to interview me! I couldn’t believe it. I thought things were finally turning around.

Narrator: Things were not finally turning around.

I didn’t get the job. It was a really tough rejection, because it felt more personal than getting a rejection email from an agent. With agents, most of those rejections are after reading five or ten pages, hardly anything. I could get over those because…well, they didn’t really know me or my writing. But with this, I’d spent a lot of time and effort getting to that point with the tests and the interview, and it felt more like I was being rejected and not my work, if that makes sense. It felt so much more personal, and that was crushing.

Getting over that rejection took more than a month. This year hasn’t been particularly easy – I feel like things have been going downhill since April – so it was just one more thing that firmly cemented 2018 in its place in the pits. One evening when I was crying in the bath, I realized that maybe being at home all the time was the problem. It was giving me the time and space to wallow, encouraging me with its cupboards full of bread and beer. (Yes, I have fully embraced Belgian life.) So I planned a trip for myself, just to get away. I had no real plan other than “not here.”

Weirdly, it worked, but not for the reason I thought it would. I stayed in this really sketchy AirBnB in Vienna, which focused all my energy on “Jeez, am I going to get murdered in my sleep tonight?” instead of “Man I wish I’d gotten that job.” I went to coffee shops and museums, doing anything I could to get out of that AirBnB. And somewhere in there, I found other things to think about. It dulled hat knife and helped me realize that I’d gotten through hundreds of other rejections from jobs and agents and schools, I could get past this too.

I’m still not really over this – I mean, it was basically my dream job, and now that opportunity is gone – but I’ve also been rejected from my dream school, my dream agent, and so many other lesser things along the way. And I’m still here. I'll make it work.

When Rejections Make You Happy

Once upon a time, I wrote a book. And I let a few friends read it, and they were like, "Huh, this is like a real book," so I was like, "GOOD ENOUGH LET'S GET THIS BABY PUBLISHED."

So. Many. Rejections.

I've queried two novels, and racked up about a hundred and fifty rejections between the two of them. The rejections from novel #1 were mostly form rejections, with no requests to see more no matter how many times I revised my query. I had a problem with my query letter, and that problem was my book didn't have enough conflict or high enough stakes.

By novel #2, I had learned how to write a book with conflicts and stakes that I could communicate clearly in a query letter. I got several requests for the full manuscript. As the rejections came rolling in, they had a common theme: "Loved your writing; can't sell this book."

Yes, getting rejected was still hard. But the nature of the rejections from book #1 to book #2 was vastly different. It was clear that I had grown as a writer; agents were complimenting my work and passing with regrets, instead of form rejecting me at the query stage.

To survive in the publishing world, you have to be able to find joy where you can, even in the face of disappointments. For me, it's seeing that I have progressed from where I was when I started this journey two and a half years ago. I'm moving in the right direction, even if I haven't yet found representation for my work.

I saved a couple of those rejection letters, and when I get down, I read them to remind myself how far I've come.

I'm hanging in there.

I hope you do, too.

********
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Four Reasons Why Your MS May Have Been Rejected That Have Nothing to do with Your Writing.

Who hasn’t been discouraged by rejection letters at some point?

Today, I’ve removed my author hat and donned my publisher hat to give you four reasons why your MS may have been rejected that have nothing to do with how well you write. First the disclaimer. My views may be different than other publishers. I can only speak to the processes of Rebelight Publishing.

Upon receiving a rejection from a publisher or agent, authors often blame themselves, rationalizing that the problem must be their writing skills. While that could be, often it isn’t the case.

When I dive the slush pile, I first go after manuscripts that fit our publishing needs. As a company, we look at our book list and identify the holes. A few months ago, we determined a need for middle grade manuscripts under 30,000 words. I went to the pile, read those submissions, and dealt with those queries first. We requested fulls, read, and signed a couple authors. If you submitted a YA manuscript to us at that point, you’d be hearing crickets in your inbox. We had a need, and it was my job to fill it. That means those MG manuscripts had to take priority.

We are a small publishing house, and we don’t want to compete with ourselves, which is why we’ve

chosen to publish multiple genres. During each cycle, we try to publish a variety of books—some MG, some YA, some historical, some speculative, some contemporary. If you send us a YA high fantasy, and we’ve just signed a YA high fantasy, you’ll likely receive a rejection for the sole reason that we’ve already filled that spot. This has nothing to do with the quality of writing, the story, or your value as the author.

Another reason you might receive a rejection is that writing style isn’t what we’re looking for. We have a certain type of book we publish at Rebelight. That does not mean other styles are wrong or lesser. This is simply our preferences, and what we’ve found does well in the marketplace. While your style may not suit us, it may suit another publisher just fine. This is why you should query widely. You never know when what you’ve written is just what a certain publisher or agent is looking for.

Ooh, I said that word—marketplace. While writing is an art, publishing is a business. We want to sell book—lots of books. We have to make a judgement call about each book we publish. We make a huge investment of time, money and resources into each book. We have to determine if this is a book we can fully get behind and market. If we feel we can’t, no matter how great the writing, the manuscript is going to get a rejection.

However, sometimes it is the writing. If you are receiving a lot of rejections, enlist additional beta readers to see if there’s something you’ve missed. It never hurts to have an extra set of eyes on a manuscript. I’m just hoping that as you read this you realized there are a lot of different scenarios in play. The best thing to do is not take it personally.

It’s human to get discouraged, but don’t give up!

GUEST POST: Learning from Rejection by Holly M. Campbell

About three years ago, I began the submissions process for my novel Foreshadowed. I had a feeling about this one. Sure, I’d had that feeling before, but this time it was real. This time, I was going to get published. It was “the one.”

I used a spreadsheet to keep track of my submissions. If an agent sent a rejection, I would highlight his or her name in red. If an agent requested pages, I would highlight in green. And if I was still waiting for a response, yellow.

Most of the names ended up highlighted in red, but there were a few in green…at least for a little while. Eventually, I had an entire spreadsheet dedicated to my failure.

Except I didn’t fail. Foreshadowed was released by 48fourteen Publishing on December 31st.

Despite all the rejection I faced, it was still “the one.” In fact, as I look back on my personal road to publication, I’ve decided that it wasn’t “the one” despite all the rejection, but because of it. I learned a lot from all those rejection letters. And I’m not just talking about lessons of perseverance and believing in myself. I learned to view rejection letters as invaluable feedback from experts. If an agent said she just “couldn’t connect with the characters,” I believed her…and I tried to fix it. If agents said the pacing was too slow, the novel too long, or the ending too flat, I believed them…and I tried to fix it. And if all I got back was a form letter or no response at all, I asked myself “Why?” and—you guessed it—tried to fix it.

I added layer after layer to each character, trying to flesh them out, trying to make them relatable. I cut scenes, added new ones, and rewrote others. I changed the ending. I rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote until I finally got the answer I had been waiting for: an offer of publication.

Now, granted, writing is a subjective business. You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try.

But if you just keep getting, “Thanks, but no thanks,” over and over again, it may be time to take a hard look at, first, your query letter, and then your novel. Try to see rejection as a tool. Don’t look at it as failure, but as a free critique from a seasoned professional.

Keep writing. Keep rewriting. And eventually you’ll write “the one” too.

She can’t avoid the dark forever…

Hope Murdoch was born dead. She took a breath two minutes later , and now is an almost-normal sixteen-year-old. Normal: a hopeless crush on the boy next door, a negative body image, and a (mis)diagnosis of ADHD. Not-so-normal: an exhausting and distracting ability to read minds. And high school is hard enough without hearing what everyone really thinks of you.

Lance Hampton used to be normal until a car accident killed him and his parents. Paramedics brought him back to a life he doesn’t want: orphaned, uprooted, living with his uncle, and suddenly able to see how people die. At his new school, he tries to keep to himself. Seeing how complete strangers die is torture enough, let alone friends.

At first glance, Hope doesn’t think much of Lance (though a lot of the other girls do). He looks like the typical bad boy. No thank-you … but then she meets his eyes and everything goes dark. 

She hears labored breathing. Rapid footsteps. And then a thud as someone falls to the ground. 

Inside Lance’s head, Hope just witnessed a vision of murder … her own.

Together Hope and Lance try to catch a killer before he’s red-handed. A killer who could be anywhere. Anyone. Sure Hope can read minds and Lance can see death, but they still can’t see in the dark.

Foreshadowed can be purchased here:

Amazon (print & eBook): http://goo.gl/9dW6ok

B&N (print & ebook): http://goo.gl/PbX4ib

Kobo: http://goo.gl/lEQCFU

iTunes/iBooks: http://goo.gl/MVo7RC

48fourteen (print & ebook): http://goo.gl/Ta5fNy

----------------------

Holly M. Campbell started writing stories at an early age. In junior high, she completed her first“novel” and enjoyed sharing it with friends and family.

She earned a Bachelor’s degree in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing, and a Minor in Modern Dance from Brigham Young University-Idaho. As a member of Contemporary Dance Theatre, she performed and toured with the school’s Dance Alliance. She graduated in 2006.

In 2007, Holly met her husband-to-be, but didn’t pay much attention to him until he asked her to help him teach swing dancing at their church. After he flipped her around and hoisted her above his head with relative ease, she fell (not literally) head-over-heels. They married a few months later.

Holly lives in Washington State with her husband and two daughters. She blogs at http://hollymcampbell.com.

Reasons for Rejection: Stereotypes

One of the quickest ways for a submission to earn a rejection (from me at least) is stereotypes in the first pages. And not just of people either. Stereotypical situations, settings and plots can turn me off as well. This should come as no surprise and yet it can be very difficult for writers not to rely on stereotypes.

You have to establish a lot in your opening pages. Characters, setting, relationships, the inciting incident and, if you're writing fantasy, another world. So, sometimes, it feels necessary to take short cuts. You need people to feel sympathy for your outcast character? Boom! Stereotypical bullies donning football or cheerleader uniforms. You need your character to look like they have a life and friends outside of the plot? Boom! Stereotypical funny, out-there, but supportive best friend who is mostly there to be your character's best friend.

I think its hard not to fall into stereotypes like these, especially in YA. Parents that don't understand, bullies, cool best friends. These are tropes that have been done to death. So if I start reading a scene the features one or more of these, the story starts to feel tired. I feel like I've read it before. And you don't ever want an agent to feel like they've read your work a million times before.

There are a lot of ways to solve this problem. You can spend a lot of time developing your side characters. You can pull the reader through with a gripping voice. You can try starting your story in a different place to see if it cuts out the stereotypes. Experiment and you'll find a way.

Unique openings are difficult but they can start with unique, fully developed characters that don't take shortcuts and draw in your reader from page one.

Celebrating Unwanted Milestones

The other day a friend mentioned that she'd gotten her first bad review. I offered sympathy, but she
said no hugs were required -- it's a milestone for every writer.

So it is. There are many milestones that show we're writers -- finishing a first novel draft, getting that first agent. Those are worth celebrating.

But so are the milestones we don't want. Often writers get excited for their first query rejection -- they are real writers, with the rejection to prove it. We should celebrate those too with battle decorations of kind. They show we keep going.

So let's all celebrate all those unwanted milestones that prove we're really trying. 

First terrible critique

First query rejection

100th query rejection

First trunked novel

Fifth trunked novel

First ex-agent

First bad review

First snarky GIF review

First Internet kerfuffle

First royalty statement with unearned royalties

First royalty statement where returns exceed sales

First remaindered book

First time rights returned for lack of sales 


It keeps going. But that's because WE KEEP GOING.

Piñatas and Other Rejection Fun

Well, it looks like I wasn’t so mysterious with the lie in my "Three Truths and a Lie" Mystery Blogger post:

Mystery Blogger gathered all her old-school paper rejections and papier-mâchéed them into a piñata. She filled it with chocolate and took a bat to it when she signed her first book deal.

Just about everybody guessed that one was made up. It must be because it sounded too good to be true. I did just get my first contract (with Sourcebooks) last spring, but the reality is that as long as we’re writing and pursuing publication, the rejections never end. Still, I’m seriously considering that piñata to honor all those years of no. Or, as I suggested to my fellow Operation Awesome bloggers, I could wallpaper my office with my rejections—except that I don’t have an office.

Other options:

• Decoupage them onto a life-size unicorn sculpture in celebration of my debut, Wonder Light: Unicorns of the Mist

• Interpretive dance—Picture me in a black leotard, waving torn paper and doing a dance of despair.

• Set them to music:

To the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat":
Try, try, try again, query someone else . . .
To Beethoven’s Fifth:
Not right for me.
Not at this time.
Your manuscript makes me wish that I had more wine.

Rejections are part of the game, and most of mine were polite. Some were even kind and thoughtful. But as they piled up over the years, I did my share of fantasizing about how to display or destroy them once I finally got a yes. And now I think, why not open up that file and do something with them?

Any ideas for me? What do you do with your rejections?

Rejection Feedback

A few friends and I are in the middle of revisions (who isn't!), but in discussing our revision strategy, I've realized how much our views on rejection feedback has changed. We've gotten feedback in agent and editor rejections, but we are not jumping to implement it. This is quite a change from my previous views. My reaction to rejection feedback has actually gone through five different stages.


Stage One - Agonizing over rejection feedback without realizing it's a form

When I got my first few rejections, I parsed every word and I thought they revealed the truth about my manuscript. I tore my hair out because Agent A was intrigued by my premise, but not drawn into the opening chapters as much a she hoped. Agent B thought I had much to be proud of, but couldn't connect with the main narrative.

Argh!. I could make it to the next step if only I revise my opening chapters somehow, or make my main character more relatable.

Then I learned those were forms. The "feedback," positive and negative, meant nothing but no.

Stage Two - Wishing for feedback with rejection

Once I realized that general comments were forms, and I agonized because I WANTED feedback. If only the agents would tell me what was wrong, I could fix it. Why won't they tell me what is wrong? Don't I even deserve a REASON?

Stage Three - Revising to every comment

Finally! My rejections came with feedback. After every rejection, I would revise. But then the next revision had DIFFERENT feedback. How could I know what to do if everyone told me something different?

Stage Four - Wishing I didn't get feedback with rejection

And then I'd get a particularly stinging comment. Maybe it hit on a nagging problem I always suspected but didn't want to face, or is was way too blunt about something I never considered. Feedback like that got me thinking the opposite of Stage Two. Must rejections include feedback? Why isn't a simple no enough without sticking the knife in too?

Stage Five  - Just another opinion, and I appreciate all opinions.

This is where I am now. When I get feedback on a rejection, I'm grateful. I appreciate the thought and time that went into reading and commenting, and I consider the comments carefully.

That doesn't mean I revise based on them. The agent or editor did not want my work. The comment is not the real reason why -- they just didn't love it, or just didn't think they could sell it. Feedback is just extra, a little parting gift in an attempt to be helpful. Unless they say they'd like to see the manuscript again if I revise according to the comment, it's useless revising to please them. The horse has already left  the barn. I won't get another chance with that editor for this book.

So when I consider the comments carefully, I find that sometimes the reasons given by several editors contradict each other Sometimes it's clear that the book is not for them and no amount of revision is going to change that. I file those comments away.

But sometimes they are right. Some problems are fixable. But the final decision to revise or not comes from my own judgment. I'm looking for an editor who loves my work, and whatever makes that more likely is a good thing. I can't always see my own work clearly so I appreciate wise guidance wherever I get it, even if it has a big old NO attached in capital letters.

How do you use rejection feedback? Have your views on rejections changed and how?

And be sure to come back tomorrow for some big news and a contest from Operation Awesome!

Writers Are Strong, Not Neurotic

This week there was some talk about Amazon's new ranking for writers, and much of it was a variant of "Aren't writers neurotic enough already?"

It's like a variant of the old saw:

Just because you're neurotic doesn't mean there's nothing to obsess over.

But I'm tired of that stereotype that writers are fragile, emotional, scattered, or obsessed. We are not neurotic. We are strong and brave and resilient. 

You have to brave to write down your thoughts and share them with others. You have to be brave to ask for and accept criticism, and strong to make your writing better. You have to be strong and persistent to actually finish a novel or story, then polish it to the best of your ability.

You sure have to be brave to query a novel.

You have to be resilient to take rejections, and for many us, begin another novel after rejection and start the process again.

When you get an agent after one book or a dozen, you have to be strong to go on submission -- so close, but often still not close enough.

When your first or twentieth book is published, you have to face down industry reviews and reader reviews -- or maybe loud, shrugging, total indifference. You have people think you're not a real writer because you're self-published or with a small press or you write for a genre that doesn't really count to them. You have to go to book signings where you don't sell books and open royalty statements with "unearned royalties" stamped in red.

And if you're a published writer, you're ranked already -- you have to go out and promote your book even when your Amazon ranking shows you're the 821,678th most popular, and your Goodreads page has gifs of celebrities gagging at your work. And anyone can see it. Everyone.

So I don't buy that we're truly neurotic. Does an engineer have to face down one-star reviews? Does a salesperson have to go out and sell a product, with the number "821,678th most popular" stamped on his forehead?

No. But we do. We are not neurotic.

We are brave and strong and resilient in the face of setbacks, both public and private.

This week I was thrilled to get a new agent, Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, and I posted about it on my own blog, if you're interested in the whole story. It took a lot of resilience to get here after many manuscripts and many, many rejections. I have a book coming out with a small press, and I'm putting myself out there, beyond my little cave, and for me, that's brave.

If you are reading this, wherever you are on your writing journey, you are brave and strong and resilient.

What's something you did as a writer that was very hard to do, but you did anyway? 

Owning My Insanity

They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same action expecting different results...or something along those lines.

It got me thinking. Are we, my dear writers, insane? Sending out query after query, revising over and over, plowing on despite the rejections and accidental deletions and manuscript fails and revision dead ends....

Or are we just persistent? Driven? Determined? Plain ol' stubborn? :D

I'm inclined to think it's a mixture of all of the above. I think it takes a certain amount of insanity to put yourself through the wringer that is the publishing industry. But at the same time, that wringer weeds out those who have a true passion for what they are doing from those who might have been trying out a passing fancy.

Because, let's face it, unless you absolutely love what you are doing, this game can really get to you.

The thought of revising, and editing, and rewriting, and querying both chills and excites me. It's daunting, to say the least. A seemingly never ending cycle of emails and snail mails and requests and rejections and critiques and bleeding manuscripts and hair-pulling-out sessions and late night IMs to ever-patient writer pals. Incredible highs followed by crushing lows....we seem to be our own special type of adrenaline junky.

Do I go jumping off cliffs?

Heck no!! I send a query letter, baby!!

Do I race a car around a track at 200 miles an hour?

No way! I go through my manuscript one more time and send that puppy off to the agent that I just know is impatiently waiting by their inbox.

I HIT SEND!!! WOOOOOO!!! What a rush!

Did I curl up in the fetal position and cry uncontrollably when that tree fell on my car a few years ago?

Pshaw! I save that sort of devastation for REAL tragedies...like when that agent who LOVED my manuscript decides they just don't love it as much as they should. Or when my perfectly polished and ready for the shelves manuscript comes back from a CP so shredded I can hardly recognize it

(just kidding....or am I?) ;-D

So, are we insane? Maybe. But you know what I love about writers? At least the ones I know, the ones who are so determined to make it they stick to their guns no matter what delightful particles of nastiness may be poised to smack them in the face -

They own their insanity.

They embrace, rejoice in it, and with a smile on their face and a song in their heart they put yet one more query letter in the mail, knowing that THIS time, the answer will be different. Despite the rejections that are literally wallpapering their office, they KNOW that eventually, someone is going to say yes. Despite the millions of times they know they are going to have to edit and re-edit their manuscripts, they keep opening those files and starting over from the beginning....just one more time.....again.


They are my heroes :D

And if that's insanity, well count me in. Sounds like a grand plan to me :)

How about you? Are you a proud, card-carrying member of the Insanity Club?