I got my first rejection today!
Yay! Almost a rite of passage, from what I understand. The good thing is that it was entirely expected. Janet Reid is a well-known literary agent and offers a once a week "Chum Bucket" where she answers queries with a personal note, eschewing a form letter reply. It is quite nice of her to think of the minnows out there.
Quite frankly, she doesn't represent work in my genre and I knew that. However, some of her fellow agents in her agency do and, at best, I was hoping for a "hey, why don't you try [agent X]". Instead, I got a very nice reply stating that zombies weren't her thing.
But, she didn't tear apart my query and she didn't tell me I sucked royally (and she would, if not quite so bluntly...or, well, yeah, she would put it bluntly). Neither did she refer me to remedial query school, which is good, considering I have read the entirety of the QueryShark website. I would have been quite humbled if I had fouled up that bad.
So, I am happy with "It's not my thing."
To use a baseball analogy, I didn't strike out. Then again, I didn't even get a bunt single, much less a double off the wall. But I put the ball solidly into play. I like to think it was a liner to left field.
The lesson learned? I can face the pitchers in this league. It may have been my first at-bat, but I am going to keep swinging.
congrats! welcome to the ranks of the rejected! I agree I think it is a right of passage for aspiring authors. And I'm a firm believer that if you do your homework, which you clearly are, you are ahead of 75% of the pack right off the bat. And honestly I too was impressed with my first rejection, it wasn't a you suck either, it was this is very well written but it's not for me. So keep plugging along one day you will find the right home for your baby!
ReplyDelete**Rejection high five**