Agents~Rejection, Acceptance and Writing
When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven't."– Thomas Edison
The publishing game is a tough business. From the writer's perspective, it can be heart breaking at times. You've poured your heart, soul, and ideas onto paper. You've had months writing, editing, agonizing over just how to put it down on paper. It has become your baby, a part of you. You decided after passing around what you've written to a few friends that your novel is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
So you decide you want to publish this beloved infant. You research some more 
writing/publishing books. This new set of books is centered on how to get an agent and get published. In your search you find Herman's Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents. Eureka! You've found the golden treasure, now getting published will be a piece of cake. That is until, you actually enter the finding an agent phase of getting your baby published. You perfect your query letter and fire it off to the first agent, knowing that once the agent sees your query and sample that you'll get an agent. Your baby is brilliant, shiny and perfect. Beware! It's shark infested waters to the naive and novice author. Very few authors are picked up by agents instantly. It may take weeks or months before you hear from them.
You get your postage added envelop, which you courteously provided the agent, in the mail. You open it with heightened anticipation. You glance at the poorly copied form letter. Rejection, your baby has fallen down and gotten a boo-boo. Okay, you reason, that agent couldn't see the forest for the trees. Dumb on his part, but you try again. I use the male pronoun here for simplicity. I know there are a great number of female agents out there. His loss. He will regret his decision one day when you hit the best seller list with your baby...that'll show him.You thumb through your list of secondary agents, you've had weeks or months to thumb through Herman's book to compile one. Ah ha, this is the better agent and you fire off another query letter.
Time ticks by (mentally hearing the final Jeopardy theme playing). Meanwhile, you read some more about writing and how to get published. You edit and reedit your work. Or in your reading, you read that publishers may want the next book within two years, so you start on a sequel or another novel. Anything to pass the time caused by the agent dragging his feet and not responding promptly. Your baby should sell itself, why can't an agent just jump on it and do it? So what if the agent has a slush pile of 10,000 queries, partials of manuscripts and full manuscripts to go through...yours is the cream of the crop. If only he could read yours, he'd be set for life just on your commission.
Time has passed and you've received rejection after rejection...sometimes several in one day depending on how you send out your queries. Proper protocol is to send them out one at a time, but that's not realistic considering the time involved. You've hedged your bet and sent out a dozen a week for twelve weeks. You've invested so much of your hard earned money in the pulp and paper mills, the US postal service and stamps, you wish you had stock in them. You've been smart and used a query tracker program to keep track of who you've sent what. (I use http://www.querytracker.net/) Remember, an agent during this time may have wanted to see the first chapter or two before making and offer to represent you. One or two may have even requested the whole manuscript.
writing/publishing books. This new set of books is centered on how to get an agent and get published. In your search you find Herman's Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents. Eureka! You've found the golden treasure, now getting published will be a piece of cake. That is until, you actually enter the finding an agent phase of getting your baby published. You perfect your query letter and fire it off to the first agent, knowing that once the agent sees your query and sample that you'll get an agent. Your baby is brilliant, shiny and perfect. Beware! It's shark infested waters to the naive and novice author. Very few authors are picked up by agents instantly. It may take weeks or months before you hear from them.
You get your postage added envelop, which you courteously provided the agent, in the mail. You open it with heightened anticipation. You glance at the poorly copied form letter. Rejection, your baby has fallen down and gotten a boo-boo. Okay, you reason, that agent couldn't see the forest for the trees. Dumb on his part, but you try again. I use the male pronoun here for simplicity. I know there are a great number of female agents out there. His loss. He will regret his decision one day when you hit the best seller list with your baby...that'll show him.You thumb through your list of secondary agents, you've had weeks or months to thumb through Herman's book to compile one. Ah ha, this is the better agent and you fire off another query letter.
Time ticks by (mentally hearing the final Jeopardy theme playing). Meanwhile, you read some more about writing and how to get published. You edit and reedit your work. Or in your reading, you read that publishers may want the next book within two years, so you start on a sequel or another novel. Anything to pass the time caused by the agent dragging his feet and not responding promptly. Your baby should sell itself, why can't an agent just jump on it and do it? So what if the agent has a slush pile of 10,000 queries, partials of manuscripts and full manuscripts to go through...yours is the cream of the crop. If only he could read yours, he'd be set for life just on your commission.
Time has passed and you've received rejection after rejection...sometimes several in one day depending on how you send out your queries. Proper protocol is to send them out one at a time, but that's not realistic considering the time involved. You've hedged your bet and sent out a dozen a week for twelve weeks. You've invested so much of your hard earned money in the pulp and paper mills, the US postal service and stamps, you wish you had stock in them. You've been smart and used a query tracker program to keep track of who you've sent what. (I use http://www.querytracker.net/) Remember, an agent during this time may have wanted to see the first chapter or two before making and offer to represent you. One or two may have even requested the whole manuscript.
Finally, you found an agent who will represent you and your baby. Congratulations! You've taken the first major baby step to seeing your pride and joy in print. You are on top of the world. You may have been one of the lucky ones who sent out one query letter and got representation. Unlikely, but possible. The agent may suggest some changes to your manuscript. It's in your best interests to listen and bend. Being stubborn at this point is not a good thing. They know the publishing market place much better than you do. After all, they are in the business to make money and they know what sells and how to sell it. If it wasn't this way, everybody and their brother could be an agent.
Your agent sends you a contract. Read it over thoroughly. There is 
all kinds of legalese in it. If you don't understand anything...contact your agent or lawyer before you sign it. I know a few authors who were excited about finding and agent or publisher that they didn't care until later. Then it was a big headache to get it straightened out, but most times prior knowledge is power. Foresight beats hindsight any day when dealing with legal issues.
all kinds of legalese in it. If you don't understand anything...contact your agent or lawyer before you sign it. I know a few authors who were excited about finding and agent or publisher that they didn't care until later. Then it was a big headache to get it straightened out, but most times prior knowledge is power. Foresight beats hindsight any day when dealing with legal issues.But above all...write on!
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