Nathan Bransford - The Forums

CafeCliche wrote:And here it is... the rejection from the Big Time agent. He called my writing "natural, atmospheric, and evocative," and called me "very talented" twice, but in the end, it didn't come together for him. He invited me to send future work.

This is my first manuscript rejection, so it's pretty tough. But I couldn't have asked for a nicer e-mail.

Sorry CafeCliche! I know how hard that first one is, so here's a big piece of virtual chocolate for you! You got good feedback on your rejection letter, so that's promising! You did it once - you can do it againn ;-)

~JD

Ah, darn it. I'd offer to go beat them up if it'd make you feel better, but said agent might be on my future query list so I can't.

All teasing aside, I can imagine how it's gotta sting a little lot, but at least you know your manuscript is worthy of a full request. Now it's just a matter of getting it into the hands of the right agent. Soldier on!

That's a really promising email, with incredible compliments about your manuscript! I agree with those who said you should keep on trying because it's very possible that you just haven't found the right agent yet.

You all are so sweet, thank you so much! No need to beat him up, gonzo2802 - as far as first rejections go, I think mine was pretty fantastic. Mostly what's getting me down is that he was my dream agent before, but after reading all the kind things he wrote, I understood just how amazing he'd be to work with. Ah, well - if this story wasn't meant to be published, I'll query him first with the next one!

It's also a little sad to go from having a full out to this awesome agency to back to querying... but that's my pride talking, haha.

Hang in there. Your query sounds really interesting and I would definitely pick it up in a bookstore. Plus his rejection sounded very complimentary so I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

I thought we agreed not to use the word rejected. It's simply a no go but it will be a go one of these days! People go a long time with no requests so celebrate the request.

Posted this awhile back...

Maybe if we called 'it' something different then it wouldn't feel so bad. Here's the synonym list from Thesaurus.com. I personally like no go.

REJECTION!!!!!
bounce, brush-off, cold shoulder, disallowance, dismissal, elimination, exclusion, hard time, kick in teeth, nix, no dice, no go, no way, nothing doing, pass*, rebuff, renunciation, repudiation, slap in the face, thumbs down, turndown, veto

Wow. You should be so proud to receive those encouraging words (very strong, encouraging words) although the agent ultimately passed (talk about a huge high then crushing low). The best part....an invitation to send them future work! Huge breakthrough in this industry. Congratulations on achieving this milestone :)

Ah, I worded that badly, Kaye - he didn't mean the ending specifically, he meant "in the end" as in overall. It sounded like he truly did enjoy the story, which is incredibly flattering, but that extra something that would make it a go wasn't there for him. By all accounts he's great at giving feedback on possible changes, and I think that if he thought making some changes would turn it into a yes, he would have said something. D:

Of course, if another agent's comments lead to some significant rewrites, I may just let him know. Of course, that's assuming I get past the query stage with another agent... (crosses fingers)