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Original poster

Rejected countless times now - give up?

87 replies

Shaffron · 22/09/2015 07:14

My children's novel has been rejected by a significant number of agents now. I've lost count.

Yet I was invited by my local librarian to read it to her after school reading group and they seem to love it.

I'm torn between giving up and focusing on my next novel I'm currently writing or keep going. Surely if it was any good then it wouldn't have been rejected this many times?

OP posts:
PotatoGun · 23/09/2015 09:28

I think SheGot makes a good point about your submission package. Is your sample, synopsis etc absolutely as good as you can make it? I realised that I'd sent out my first novel too soon, which was (and is!) soul-destroying, because I squandered my only personal contacts with an agent on a submission that just wasn't good enough yet.

I stopped sending it out, and it's had two more revisions and one total rewrite (still ongoing) since. I'm trying not to beat myself up about the first submissions, and hold to the fact that it's a much stronger novel now.

Abraid2 · 23/09/2015 09:33

I had two hundred agent rejections before my first novel was published eight years ago. I have now had five published traditionally and two that I published myself.

BUT, you need to move on and get writing the next book. You can always return to the first book. My second published novel was actually the first book I ever wrote. I used to take it out once a year and rewrite it. In the meantime I wrote two other novels.

Move on and write the next one. :)

MissBattleaxe · 23/09/2015 09:59

Two hundred! Now that's determination. Glad it paid off Abraid.

PotatoGun · 23/09/2015 10:17

Abraid, hats off to you! Was that exactly the same submission that did the rounds to 200 agents, or were you altering it in response to feedback?

Original poster
Shaffron · 23/09/2015 12:31

I've not reached 200 yet but that has given me renewed determination, thank you!

OP posts:
Abraid2 · 23/09/2015 13:07

It was for two different novels, and the query was tweaked and retweaked as it went along. I was in a tough critique group, too, so it wasn't a bad query, either. I knew I was writing publishable stuff, had a writing background, had won various prizes and had short stories published, so I just ignored the rejections and kept on writing. I knew there were readers out there for my books. One of my novels has twice been in the Amazon US top 12 and another, one of the multi-rejected first novels, has been a bestseller in Europe and shortlisted for several awards.

Agents and editors don't always know what will sell, BUT, it is important to move on and write something new, because that is the way we improve. Then when/if you return to a first novel you can brush it up further, or decide it doesn't reflect your improved writing standards.

ImperialBlether · 23/09/2015 15:54

That's great advice, Abraid. What genre are you writing in? Were you approaching foreign agents too? I can't think of 200 agents!

How many were you selling per day to be in the Amazon US top 12? I imagine sales are pretty high there.

MissBattleaxe · 23/09/2015 15:59

I think you're wonderful Abraid! You're not afraid to make changes and take criticism on the chin and your determination is inspiring!

thehypocritesoaf · 23/09/2015 16:10

Yes, I'd get on with writing your new thing - then when you revisit this one in a few months you might want to make some changes.

Or pay for some agency feedback?

ImperialBlether · 23/09/2015 16:22

That's expensive, though, isn't it? I looked up how much it would cost for me to get feedback and it was £420!

Abraid2 · 23/09/2015 19:18

Oh thank you, all. Yes my mega querying included US agents, mainly in NY.

When the book was in the top 12 on Amazon it was selling several thousand a day. Which was wonderful and almost frightening. I write historical/literary/women's/crime kind of cross-over.

Imperial, this is work. You have to look on it as professional training. Sometimes it's worth paying for a really thorough read. I paid for an editor to give me a report on my very first novel. This was before I was in a good critique group with some talented folk who helped me develop a lot.
It was very helpful indeed, even if expensive.

ImperialBlether · 23/09/2015 22:36

Blimey, several thousand a day?! And was this on Kindle? I bet you were glued to the sales graph, weren't you?

Abraid2 · 24/09/2015 06:14

Yes, pint and e-version. It was very compelling, and weird to see this 'rejected' book take off!

thehypocritesoaf · 24/09/2015 09:04

That's inspiring stuff, abraid!

Abraid2 · 24/09/2015 09:13

Thank you.

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 24/09/2015 09:18

That is brilliant, Abraid. I think one thing I like most about that account is your sense of quiet confidence, despite the rejections, because you knew from your critique circle and previous successes that the book was good. It's a sort of calm, rational, well-earned faith in yourself as a writer.

I think when you're starting out it can be very easy to see everything in all or nothing terms: 'either this book will succeed and that will mean I am talented and a writer, or it will fail and that will mean I can't write and I might as well give up.' But if you know how far you have come, and you have multiple pieces of evidence of that journey, and you have a realistic idea of the vagaries of the publishing process, it's very much less nerve-racking. You know that if you don't sell that book it doesn't mean the book wasn't good and it doesn't mean you won't sell the one after, and that what really matters is your ability to keep on going.

MissBattleaxe · 24/09/2015 09:47

Abraid your story is inspirational. It also gives weight to a theory I've always had but been a bit shy of expressing in real life. For some people, you just HAVE to be a writer. It's like a vocation. You just know you will be one. It's an unshakable urge.

It's always felt like that with me and I've told people I'm going to be a writer even though it looks pitifully unattainable to them at times, or sounds big headed or embarrassing.

Please tell me it's not just me! Blush

PotatoGun · 24/09/2015 09:55

What Countess said. It's the unobtrusive, earned self-belief, and the sense of seeing something through that emerges from Abraid's post. And I agree entirely that at the beginning it's all terribly nerve-wracking and like something from a 1940s Hollywood film about the hoofer being picked out of the chorus line and will she succeed or fail on the gala night when the big star doesn't show??????, and a rejection is proof you'll never amount to anything. The rejections/rejection-accompanying feedback I've had since last December, when I first started querying, have improved my novel hugely, and made me tougher.

MissBattleaxe · 24/09/2015 10:07

The day I signed with my agent is the same day my short story got sent back from People's Friend for "being too predictable". Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

SheGotAllDaMoves · 24/09/2015 10:15

missbattle that's interesting; the question of vocation.

I know lots of writers who can't remember a time when they weren't writing. But that wasn't the case for me. I hadn't written anything since childhood until I started on what became Book 1 (at 33/34). I was happy with my career as a lawyer and never considered replacing it with writing.

Since then I've been writing solidly for almost 15 years. It is now my profession and I can't see that ever changing (although what I write has and is constantly changing).

Abraid2 · 24/09/2015 10:16

Yes, you have to have that quiet belief that you are a writer, that inner strength, because it is going to be very tough, for most of us. Hideously so at times.

But you also have to have, beneath that self-confidence, a sense of humility and a willingness to take on sometimes harsh criticism. I still find sending a book for a friend to critique or an editor to approve or not terrifying. My new editor may reject the book I've been working on for the last 11 or so months when I send her the synopsis and first few chapters. Nothing can be taken for granted.

But at least I have had my moment.

Good luck to everyone. Keep on writing and keep on pushing onwards. Shaffron sending you vibes in particular as this is your thread.

SheGotAllDaMoves · 24/09/2015 10:17

Actually now I think of it, I've been a writer longer than I was a lawyer Smile.

PotatoGun · 24/09/2015 10:27

Do you read legal thrillers and groan, SheGot? I have a farmer friend who tuts over John McGahern's farming mistakes in his novels, but is impressed with Edna O'Brien's farming savvy despite her having lived in Chelsea for aeons.

MissBattleaxe · 24/09/2015 10:29

SheGot- It can hit at any time-but the point I meant to make was that sometimes you have to have an inner belief that no amount of rejection can shake.

Oh yes Abraid- the ability to be humble is essential. My agent red penned me left right and centre. That red pen is invaluable. I will never be complacent or cocky about my writing. Everything my agent suggested has improved it and I am so grateful for that.

MissBattleaxe · 24/09/2015 10:30

The red pen was meant to be in speech marks. It was a metaphorical red pen, not a biro!