Jun 15, 2011

When you have been rejected...

....please DON'T resend your same query over and over.  We have passed.  Case closed.

....please DON'T tell us off and curse our names.  At least not in a Reply email to us.  It just puts you on our black list.

...please DON'T send the same query with a different title.  More often than not, we remember.  And it's annoying.

Now, when your query has been rejected...

...please DO give yourself a few moments to be bummed out.  No one likes to be rejected and we all face it in this industry at every level. It sucks.

...please DO query us with future projects if you think they are appropriate for our list.

...please DO file it away and just keep writing. Every writer I've ever worked with has been rejected!

That is all. :-)

10 comments:

Stephsco said...

OK, this one made me laugh:

please DON'T send the same query with a different title. More often than not, we remember. And it's annoying.

I can't imagine that would work... points for misguided tenacity I suppose.

lexcade said...

....please DON'T tell us off and curse our names. At least not in a Reply email to us. It just puts you on our black list.

Wow. I do NOT have the balls for that one. Can't imagine that ever working in a positive way.

PJD said...

Wait, there really is a blacklist?

cue massive unwarranted internet hysteria in comments sections on all agent blogs

Livia Blackburne said...

I got cussed out once by someone who wanted to participate in a psychology experiment but don't fit our criteria. So I sympathize :-) And I also decided to keep strictly to a no response means no policy from then on.

Sally said...

Wow, cursing in a reply e-mail - now that's a way to get published. I have a lot of rejections - if I took each one personally, I would never see the light of day! Take the no's, learn from them and move on.

Unknown said...

If those people handle rejection like that . . . can you imagine how they'd handle an editorial critique?
:cue horrified face:

Karen Baldwin said...

GUILTY! I have sent a query with a different title...but after two years. I know, I know...still a no, no.

Susan said...

...and please DON'T contact the agent's authors hoping to get an "in" after you've been rejected. This is more likely to get you black-listed as well as piss off aforementioned author.

Laila Knight said...

Funny.

I've seen people cursing at agents on blogs under the anonymous guise. My goodness, rejection sucks, but I just have to shake my head.

Jodi R. said...

I let out a most lovely string of curses into the air in the general direction of an agent after receiving an e-mail rejection last night. Of course, I don't think she heard me, what with her being in NYC and me being in Nova Scotia. Even with prevailing winds, I think I'm safe.

Actually, it was very cathartic, and now, I honeslty can't even remember which agent it was! Moving right along...

(verification word: "hommere" - d'oh!)