Are you getting ready to query agents? Want to know some of the reasons agents give out rejection slips? Every agent has pet peeves, but there are definite reasons why most of them will reject a query letter.
Let’s take a look at seventeen reasons agents reject queries.
-Your book isn’t written. A query letter the way to ask an agent’s advice on an idea you have. Sorry, but you have to do the work and write the book, then see if the idea was great or not. Besides, sometimes a great idea won’t be properly executed, so the book will flop. Or the idea isn’t very good, but the way the story is written will win over any agent. You just never know until the story is on paper… or monitor. Non-fiction is a little different. You need to have a complete proposal written but not the book.
-Lack of confidence. If you start your query out by saying, “You’re probably going to hate this”, why should an agent waste her time reading it? And why did you waste her time by sending the query if it’s not ready?
-Overconfidence. This can be anything from claiming you’re the next Stephen King to saying, “My query doesn’t do the story justice. You really need to read the novel. It’s to die for.” Or you might say, “Query letters are beneath me. I don’t have time to write one up. I’m too busy working on my next book. I know you’ll understand and appreciate my dedication to this new creation. I guarantee you’ll love my novel. I’ve attached the first three chapters so we can skip this unnecessary step.” Confidence is one thing, but overconfidence can scare agents away because they might feel you’ll be difficult to work with.
-An attempt at being funny. Addressing the query to the agent’s dog, cat, child, or anything other than the agent herself isn’t funny or cute. It’s unprofessional. Don’t do it.
-Not the sender. The query is sent through a query service or by your friend, husband, wife, neighbor, dentist, or anyone other than you. This is the beginning of a relationship between you and the agent. Why wouldn’t you approach her yourself?
-Amateurish appearance. This is when you say something like, “This is my first book ever. I took twelve years to write this book and it’s in its first draft. I’ll need help editing this thing because I’m not that good with grammar.” There are a few problems with this example. You don’t need or want to tell the agent that this is the first book you’ve written because the odds are very good you’ll never sell your first novel. If you do, it’ll be after major revisions. Don’t make the agent nervous that she’ll be wasting her time by telling her this. Don’t mention how long it took you to write the book, especially if it took over a year. Your writing speed should increase as you learn the craft and become more comfortable with novel writing. In this market, publishers often require their authors to produce 2-3 novels a year. Some will permit one novel a year if you add short stories to anthologies or write a novella or two. They want you to keep your name in the public eye and one novel a year isn’t cutting it anymore. There are exceptions, so don’t let this frighten you, but don’t tell an agent it took you years to write this novel or she’ll be afraid you can’t produce enough material to satisfy a publisher.
-Poor attitude. This is similar to overconfidence, but it’s on a whole new level. This is when a writer says he doesn’t believe he needs an agent or he thinks agents rip people off. This can be a romance writer who trashes romance novels because most of them “suck”. Or an erotica author who says most novels in her genre are nothing more than smut. Agents don’t want to work with negative people, so if this sounds like you, don’t waste anyone’s time. You can expect a rejection. Many of them, actually.
-Jealousy or entitlement. This is when a writer complains that every member in her critique group has an agent or is published but her. Or she states in her query letter that she expects to receive an advance as big as a New York best seller and if the agent can’t get that for her, she’ll go somewhere else.
-Too friendly. This is when a writer acts as though she’s the agent’s friend. She might say something like, “Hey, Rachel. How’s it going? Just thought I’d send you a little something about my book.” Maybe they’ve met before, maybe not. Regardless, this is still a business proposition and should be treated as such.
Come back next Tuesday for the second half of this post, where we’ll look at eight more reasons agents reject query letters.
If you need help with your query or synopsis, check out these query letter and synopsis critique packages.
What has your experience been with querying agents?
Lynnette Labelle
www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Have a professional sounding email address. One agent specified this so I created a professional sounding email address and made a mistake and sent it from the old mailbox. Bounce.
My experience with query letters is 527 rejections for my novels, but I’m not worried. It’s good practice for writing the best query letter ever…oh yeah, and a novel. Yep, too many writers don’t spend enough time with query letters. I tell them all the time: You’ve spent years writing a novel. Spend more than fifteen minutes writing a query letter that is your SOLE introduction to someone who has your career in their hands.
Virginia: Excellent advice. Thanks.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Rick: You’re right. Query letters can be more difficult to write because the author struggles with what to include and what to leave out. However, that doesn’t mean he/she shouldn’t take time to write the best query possible. Thanks for sharing and good luck with your queries.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
This could go on for a while since there are millions of reasons to reject your query. Only one real reason to accept it: they think they can make some $$$$$. You can have a crummy query and break all the “rules” and still get an agent if they think the story will make them some money.
Grumpy: I don’t see a problem with agents wanting to make money. Why shouldn’t they make money? Being an agent is their job. Most authors expect to make money off their books, so this isn’t any different. I wouldn’t want an agent to take me on unless they believed in my work and that they’d make money off it. If they think they can make a lot of money off my book, I’d jump up and down because that would mean they expect me to make a lot off it, too. Win/win.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
I’m with Rick on this! I have never understood how a writer can justify spending years on a manuscript, but days on a query. I have spent more than a year on my own query letter, and now it’s with an editor.
Will it do any good? Who knows, but at least I can say I gave it a chance.
Rainy: That’s dedication.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Agents get a bad rap sometimes by people who misunderstand what their role is and how they can be of help.
Both sides have something to gain but it is a mistake to start with an adversarial stance.
Jack: I agree.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Excellent advice. It’s always amazed me that so little effort is put into what is arguably the most important document. It is a gateway document and you really don’t want to lock the gate when you are inviting someone inside.
Christine: Nicely put.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Thanks for this Lynnette – your advice is all too true and I have learnt the same by my earlier mistakes.
Becoming a published writer involves two things 1. completing a near final draft manuscript that has been worked and reworked and reworked and 2. Successfully selling your manuscript.
The selling is basically a matter of having to sell or book as though it was to be judged by its cover – or back cover half-page synopsis or spiel. The manuscript is just a dead prop besides a query submission. Unfortunate but true.
So one must also be a competent and talented writer but also equally canny salesperson with one’s research and work into the sales’ protocol being just as vital as the book itself.
I believe less is best with queries and a demure or quiet style of cover letter is better.
I completed my novel last year but have been working ever since on only making submission queries when satisfied with my spiel info – I have literally done over 50 drafts of my spiel-letter or spiel email approach. Still agonising over it daily.
The query letter is vital nowadays because agents are so overwhelmed with so many writers thanks to computers making it easier to process writing and also because of being able to submit via email which I think devalues one’s submission by being just one query of many in an agents inbox and devalues the submission process because it is easy to submit this way and also way cheaper than printing and postage costs and there’s always some printer issues etc.
Any also there is the issue now of writers having to go through a professional manuscript assessment and demonstrated external professional development and subsequent positive reports and referrals before publishers will even turn a page on new work.
The writing of one’s novel is the easy and fun part – the real world challenge is in selling it in basically 30 seconds of agent reading time.
And yes of course aren’t published just because they’re fine masterpieces of new bold writing – they are published as products of return-on-investment alone.
A bank wont lend you $10-50,000 if they believe you won’t pay it back or pay it back with no profit for them and a publisher is just like a bank.
Proof of this in the way that bestselling novels are always by the few main multi-national publishing houses who have enough money to spend on marketing and advertising to ensure the book gets a return – add to that their stakeholder interest in media and they can make any book a hit. 50 Shades of Banality or whatever it is called is great example with it being plastered all over the mainstream media platforms and even being a regular news story – corporate gatekeepers of what is artistic success or not.
Anyway I type too much.
Ian
Ian: Thanks for sharing. I like your bank analogy.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com