You know how I decided to make November NaNoSubMo? At the time it seemed smart. I thought I'd submit while everyone else was writing. The problem was, I didn't really think it through. As the rejections roll in and I'm getting ready for the holidays, it does make me wonder what I was thinking. Who knows, maybe I'll land my agent just before Christmas and I'll be the happiest woman in the world, but I probably should have re-thought my strategy. I kind of hope that agents create rejection letters, but hold onto them until after the holidays and just send them out the second week of January. Although, I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
I posted earlier that many agents don't accept queries between November 20th and January 1st. In fact, out of forty-one agents I only saw three that were closed to queries and two of those were prior to November 20th. I think it just depends on the agent. This can happen at any time during the year. Maybe they have so many clients they can't take on another writer, or they are back-logged and need some time to catch up, or they have personal issues they're dealing, or a myriad of other reasons. The fact is, if your story is ready--send it out (I can say this now, because I'm doing it). If the agent isn't accepting manuscripts, they will sometimes say when they'll be open for submissions again. Write this on your query tracking sheet and submit to them when they're ready.
Luckily I'm not doing this whole submitting process by myself. Because of the four critique groups I participate in, I have a few friends that are published, agented, pre-agented, and submitting at the same time. As my rejections began rolling in, I asked my friends what their ratio of form rejection to personal rejections were and they told me that the majority of the rejections are form.
To date I have ten form rejections. No personal rejections yet. Of course I wonder how I can strengthen my manuscript, second guess if it's ready to submit, and go through the gamut of questioning my sanity (as I think most authors do), but amazingly, knowing that most of the rejections are form rejections helped me deal with these types of rejections better.
Another thing that has helped me a lot is the series of submission videos from Cyle Young, an agent at Hartline Literary. He talks you through the submission process and explains a lot of what agents go through in the process of unsolicited manuscripts. In one of the videos he explains that form rejections are just easier as an agent. Sometimes people who get personal rejection letters don't accept the suggestions that they're given, they get upset, and then write mean letters to the agent who was just trying to help them. If you're given specific feedback try to look at it with an open mind and see if there is value in the words, don't spurn that gift.
We'll see over the next weeks where this submission process will take me. Maybe it'll just be another chance for me to review my work, polish it a little more, write some different (hopefully better) books, and continue on my path. I hope that you all view your submission process in the same light.
If you have input on form rejections versus personal rejections, I'd like to know. Comment below so we can move forward on this trail together!
