Does Rejection or Silence From Agents and Publishers Mean You’re a Bad Writer?
If there’s one thing that makes a person think they’re a bad writer and that their work is a flaming dumpster fire, it’s a constant stream of rejections or — even worse — plain silence. This video points out that the quality of your work is not the only thing that agents and publishers consider. If they don’t perceive potential sales and profit based on previous trends, they likely won’t bite the hook you put into the water.
Two dead giveaways that trends are coming into play is that the agent or publisher makes reference to the ability to market the book or mentions that the fit of the book isn’t in line their current list. Both type of comment suggest that the agent or publisher is locked into a concept about what they want to work with or what will sell. This can happen even when an agency or publishing house declares on their site that they want fresh voices and approaches.
I’ll point out here, too, that it still takes some finesse to get an agent’s attention, and there are other quirks of the process. Sometimes, you might send a fantastic query and manuscript but the agent, who’s only human and makes mistakes, hasn’t updated their site to say they’re closed. I’ve noticed notifications on QueryManager that weren’t on profiles, and I was lucky to see those given that the agents also allowed for email submissions. You might have just picked the wrong comps or had your submission read by an intern who’s still learning what the agent really goes nuts for.
So, rejections can pile up even when you’re actually writing quite well and are trying to follow guidelines. But my biggest advice is to do everything you can to get as much feedback as possible before you start submitting. Others can offer advice about how to get the book and query in its best shape. Do some A/B testing through them and see what they respond to better. Then give submitting another shot. If you still don’t hear anything but the consistent message from your team is that the work is ready, consider self-publishing.
[Transcript summary]
One question I sometimes get asked is, if you are submitting a work to a traditional publisher and you’re not getting any responses at all, whether it’s to an agent or the actual publishing house, does that mean that your work is bad? And my take on that is, not necessarily.
It could be a lot of things. It could be maybe you’re just missing the mark a little bit on the query itself. But most of the time, my opinion on what’s actually going on is, traditional publishers, they’re out to make money. They are for-profit companies, and you gotta understand that. So, what they do — just like any other business — is, they look at what has previously sold. They look at trends. And if your book does not fit a particular trend, they don’t necessarily accept it, because they don’t have that perceived profit potential.
So, it doesn’t mean that you’re not a good writer, or that the book wouldn’t necessarily sell. Readers could be ready for that book, but the publishers are just not putting it out there. So, that is why — one of one of the reasons why I have been advocating for self publishing and hybrid publishing, because it does allow [writers] to kind of bypass that and actually test the market themselves to see what else readers might be interested in.
So, just take the responses — or lack thereof — with a little bit of salt, because it doesn’t necessarily reflect your writing. A lot of times, it just reflects market trends.
Take care, everybody. Bye.