Hierarchy of Rejection: Personalized Rejections

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We’re back to discussing rejections, which as a writer, is a regular part of your writing life. As soon as you start submitting your work outward, you will face it. It’s impossible not to – the written word is such a subjective thing, and it isn’t going to mean the same to everyone. Out of all of the things we mention about rejections, this is the one I hope you’ll truly remember. When the agents and editors comment that this is a subjective business, they mean it. What reaches one agent might mean nothing to another and visa versa.

What’s also easy to forget is that agents and editors want to find work they love. They are hunting for the next manuscript to fall in love with. They hope the requested materials will be exactly what they want. If they didn’t have that hope, if they didn’t WANT writers to succeed, why would they keep doing what they do?

Whether it feels like it or not, agents and editors are cheering you on. And as long as you maintain professional and thoughtful, they’ll keep wishing you nothing but luck in your career and when you’re ready to submit your next story, you can send to them again.

Today is about personalized rejections. Look at the hierarchy again:
– Form Rejection
– Personalized Rejection
– Personally Critiqued Rejection
– Revision Requested Rejection

A form rejection, as mentioned is a rejection slip that contains nothing personal. It might include your name and manuscript name, but there is nothing personalized in the content of the letter. The wording was written long before you ever submitted your work.

A personalized rejection is one that contains information specific to you, the writer, and your manuscript or query. The next rung up the ladder is personally critiqued rejection, which we’ll get into next week. I separate the two based solely on the amount of input received.

One way to look at rejections isn’t as a “grade” as much as it is a learning tool. Matching the type of rejection letter to their hierarchy can help you understand exactly where you are in the learning curve of writing. And this is an important element: if you don’t yet realize there is a learning curve, you’re at the beginning of it. The learning curve is high. Talent is a required element, but it’s not enough to get most people published. You need to learn the craft of writing and when it’s time to submit, you need to learn about the world of publishing. Fortunately, there are blogs and books galore out there to help you with both.

So let’s look at the personalized rejection letter. A personalized rejection is a step up. Editors and agents receive a lot of material and they don’t have time to respond to everyone. So if they take the time to give you specific details, it means something. It’s impossible, however, to judge what’s in the agent’s mind when they send the rejection, so don’t try. But basing your rejections on the hierarchy can help.

A personal rejection contains specific reference to the content of your story. It can be an agent’s opinion about your story; it can be a comment about a character. Most often, a personal rejection will include a sentence or two about what they DID like. Some examples of wording:

“I love this idea.”
“You have a strong voice.”
“The characters were believable.”
“Your plot is well structured.”
“Your dialogue is strong.”

This is followed by a “but” somewhere and then the reason they are passing:
“I didn’t fall in love with the writing.”
“It’s not a great fit for me.”
“I can’t think of where to sell this right now.”
“I didn’t feel passionate enough about it.”

Technically, everything that comes after the “but” is similar, if not exact, to what you see in a form letter. The reasoning is going to be the same and most often, an agent or editor won’t give more reasons for not choosing your work. But if they tell you what they DID like, you’ve received the most basic version of a personalized rejection. There are variations, but ultimately it boils down to this: “While I liked X, Y or Z, I’m still going to pass.”

“Send me Something Else”

Some personalized rejections include a request for other work. You may also receive a request to see other work. If you’ve got something else completed, polished and ready to go, be sure to send back a new query for the new work starting with a note that she asked to see other work from you. This is a BIG deal. Don’t overlook the opportunity.

I remember a conversation I had with an agent I had sent SOMETHING ABOUT HER to. The requested materials were still sitting on her desk when I accepted the offer from The Wild Rose Press, so I emailed to let her know that. She wished me the best of luck and asked me to remember her in future when I had something else to submit. Later, I met her at an RWA conference and we chatted for a while. She remembered me, remembered my story and said that she thought I was “crazy talented” (her words, which kept me on a high throughout the conference LOL), but when she’d received my work, the immediate thought that ran through her head was, “What are 5 publishers I could submit this to now?” She told me if she can’t immediately come up with that answer, she might pass on a project. And the reasons could be numerous: from the publishers aren’t big on that genre, to they just acquired a similar story to any host of possibilities. Agents, I imagine, represent a client based on the work they can sell now.

So remember that rejections aren’t always about your work. Publishing is a business with a lot of decision makers to get through.

And I’d like to see some stats because I’m taking a wild stab guess at this, but I would assume that the only time you’ll start to see anything personal is after you’ve had a request for materials. Most queries that don’t request materials are form rejections. If anyone else has a different experience, please share.

How To Respond?

As with any rejection you get, it’s impossible to look at one rejection and say, “this is what I need to do to fix my work.” Sometimes, your work may not need fixing at all. Another agent might adore your manuscript and want to represent you. Other times, you still have more to learn on the learning curve.

The frustrating part is in not knowing which is true. All you can really do is take the steps to advance your learning curve. I’m a big believer that you don’t always know what you don’t know until you learn it. It’s very true in this business. There is always something else to be gained.

But there are some basic questions you can grade yourself on when it comes to submitting your work. Ideally, you’ll do this before you submit and before you get a rejection. But before you send any agent a query letter, grade yourself on these questions:

1. Have I finished my book, polished it (edits and rewrites) and have other readers critique it?
2. Do I have a concrete synopsis ready to send that details the direction of my plot and shows my plotting abilities?
3. Do I have a one-sentence concept line to explain my story?
4. Do I have a one to two paragraph blurb giving an intriguing glance at my story? (the query blurb/pitch)
5. Have I read blogs or books or taken workshops to improve my craft skills?
6. Did I research this particular agent and I know 100% that he/she is interested in my genre?
7. Did I follow the rules of submission according to their website?
8. Did I format my query letter appropriately and include the correct information?

Before you ask, yes, you need to have a solid grade on all of these aspects. While the one-sentence line might not seem relevant to writing a query, it’s definitely relevant to understanding your story and knowing that it has a sellable concept.

Do I Say Thank You?

Whether or not to respond to the agent or editor who rejected you is your choice. However, if they have a blog, research it first to see how they feel about those thank you emails. Some like them, and some feel they are a waste of time.  Know your audience.

And if you do write that thank you, be professional. Be courteous. There are blog posts on every agent blog I’ve read that joke about the worst responses they’ve received. Showing anger, upset or your disappointment that you were rejected by them will make them remember you, but not in any way you want to be remembered. If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t write it in an email. And if you would, well then, that’s another post altogether.

Learn the craft, apply it to your writing, make sure others are reading your work before you submit and research the business of publishing. If you’re actively pursuing these steps and you’re receiving a rejection – keep sending it out to other agents. There are plenty examples of work that was rejected many times before finding a home and going on to great success. Yours could be next.

Next week, we’ll discuss Personal Critiqued Rejections and what to do with them.  If you missed the first post about form rejections, find that here.