Getting rejection letters is as much a part of writing as putting words to paper. And what you do with them can have a profound impact on your success as an author. I haven't actually kept count but I'd guess that I've gotten close to two hundred rejection letters / emails over the last four years from agents and publishers. The constructive use of all that rejection falls into one of two categories. The first category of rejection is when the agent/publisher actually gives you some constructive criticism. At least for me, I haven't found this too often. Most agents / publishers are too busy to give personal feedback on your manuscript. That's why you usually get the form rejection letter. But every once in a while you find the agent or publisher that takes the time to tell you what you could do to make your manuscript more marketable. And after all, isn't that what writing is all about. I've gotten the following valuable feedback:
- It took to long for anything to happen in the story (introduce the primary conflict earlier in the story) .
- You need to make that character's behavior more realistic.
- I'd take out that entire chapter - it doesn't really add to the progression of the plot (too much background)
As you can imagine, feedback like this is crucial to making your story better and becoming the best author you can be. I can't express how much I appreciate the agents and publishers who take the time to help me better my work. I've incorporated their feedback into my manuscripts and I think my stories are better for it.
The second kind of rejection (as you probably have deduced) is the standard "form" rejection letter /email. On the surface, you might ask what benefit can be derived from a template rejection letter. And at first I thought the same. But then I stepped back and looked at rejection in the big picture. I've had agents tell me "you can really write". I also did extremely well in the writing contest I entered. That being said, how do I take the standard rejection that my manuscript is not a good fit for such-n-such agency? After all, I am querying the agencies that handle my genre (horror / thriller). It took a while, but then I started to realize that perhaps I've been writing too much of what I like to see from the genre and not enough of what my intended audience would like to see. Other than 'Touches' I've shied away from the traditional "horror" elements and concentrated on what I call more "realistic horror". You could say that I haven't been following the standard formula for writing fiction. Now I still believe that there's a market for realistic horror, but I'm thinking that you have to have an established fan base before you journey too far off the proven path. So what's this mean for me? I know vampire stories are solid - so I guess I'm going to start writing vampire stories. Hopefully I'll build up a big enough fan base that will allow me at some point to introduce a different kind of horror to the market.
Until then, be prepared for some of the most suspenseful vampire stories you've ever read. J/W
