Round and Round we Go

I fair amount of my writer friends are currently entrenched in query hell - - that ping pong of emotions where you get an email saying I loved your first ten pages send me more followed by an email that says I just didn’t connect with your voice. I know that rejection is a necessary part of the game, but you sure need to have an enormous tolerance for self-inflicted pain to survive this rung of the publishing ladder.

As a humbling reminder, I have a folder of all the query rejections I received. I combed through it this morning and came to two conclusions. First, I think it is standard practice for every rejecting agent to tell us: “agenting is very subjective, and even though we could not take on your project at this time, another agent might feel differently.” Sure doesn’t feel subjective when  your inbox is piled high with rejections for your manuscript!

Second, I still don’t understand how you can like my voice enough in the first 50 pages to request a full then turn around and reject me for “not connecting with my voice.” I am beginning to think that “not connecting with your voice” is code for simply not liking my story. I almost wonder if a simple, two-word rejection of “Sorry, no” would have been easy to tolerate. At least it would’ve left no room to read between the lines.

I still get rejections for Cedar – got one just last week for a query I sent way back in December. I laughed and saved it to my rejection folder. Incidentally, I also got a request for a full with a very nice note attached apologizing for the delay in responding.

I would love to hear how your ride on the query-go-round is going and am interested in what your favorites “rejection lines” are.