Personal Rejections

[BlancheKing]

well, this is interesting.

Two more rejects, both personal. One of the agents told me that she'd moved my story to the top of her pile after her confirmation, and after some thought, she said it was engaging, and it had a well constructed plot, but she couldn't connect with the ending...

I wonder if it's the way I structured the end or what happens...

[Heather B]

Gah! Could they be any more vague? I'm not quite at the querying stage (still trying to get that darn letter to work for me) but honestly, it is so hard for them to tell you what about the ending they didn't like? It's personal opinion, after all. It's not like they've read the synopsis and decided it's just not for them...

[GeeGee55]

I followed the link in Nathan's blog on Friday to the agent page, Kidlit.com, to read the article on Art vs Business, and as I was cruising around the site came to an article containing an answer to this very question. This is the link if you'd like to read it: http://kidlit.com/tag/despair/. You might have to paste it into your address bar for it to work, I don't know about these things. The article is very aptly categorized under Despair which I feel frequently when thinking of the business end of writing. Anyway, good luck with yours.

[JuiceinLA]

Lots of people here have good advice on the subject. My situation seems to be similar to yours, I have sent about 20 query letters so far, trying hard to target only agents who not only work in my genre, but who seem (based on their client list and website bio) willing to take on my style. For every 3 queries, I get either a read request or a personal rejection, which are so helpful. The first thing I learned was that I better prepare the agent- in my query letter for my "balls to the wall" smart ass controversial style. I had one very prominent agent love my very professional query letter only to ask for the manuscript and be put off by my colorful language. From other agents who have passed, I have also learned that I may have turned off a great number of agents by the length of my book. I have now edited it down by about 50,000 words, thanks to one agent who gave it to me straight.

I understand its too hard to do this for everyone, but to those agents who take that minute to say "hey- consider this"... or "here is where you lost me", I give a resounding heartfelt thank you!!!!