Comments on: Learning From A First Rejection Letter

By: simon mcneil

simon mcneil — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 13:17:14 +0000

Queried her for the same reason as you, got the same form letter. LOL

By: Shawn Speakman

Shawn Speakman — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:19:03 +0000

Mega: Still thinking about Ralph Vicinanza. When I went back to read our correspondence, I saw in his last note that he felt as though he knew enough about the project to pass on it. That said, what he initially read was the draft before my rewrite, when I incorporated all of Terry Brooks’ thoughts into the revision.
The revision is vastly improved over what Ralph read. Ralph loved my opening chapter and thought the next three were “okay” and the fifth was “good.” Of course, the opening chapter is from Richard’s POV, the next three were from Bran’s POV, and the fifth was from Cormac’s POV. In the revision, Terry had me remove almost ALL of Bran’s chapters because he was a “boring character.”
So now the entire book is mostly told from Richard’s POV instead of Bran’s. Richard is the best character and I don’t know why I didn’t see that while writing it.
That changes the opening of the book to a:
1. Richard
2. Richard
3. Richard
4. Bran
5. Cormac
6. Richard
7. Richard
Yesterday I kind of decided to do one thing: I’d give Matt Bialer a shot. He is super smart, savvy, and works hard at improving first time writers’ manuscripts.
If Matt passes, well, I only have myself to blame as a writer and storyteller, as I think my book is right up his alley genre-speaking. I will then take The Dark Thorn and pitch it to the publishing companies I know already want to look at it.
And if one of them likes it and wants to buy it, I’ll ask Ralph if he’d be interested in making some free money.
Tomn & JD: Nice to know I am in good company!
By the way, I posted those first five chapters up on my website yesterday. I just felt like it was time to post something else.

By: Tom Marcinko

Tom Marcinko — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:06:17 +0000

Shawn, thanks for the post.
I got the “thanks, but I’m not just enthusiastic enough” from Ms. Jackson, & from several other agents as well.
It does seem to be a pretty standard response, which is not to say that it’s not a valid or true response.
FWIW, my book is new (or at least newish) space opera. O for a degree in physics and/or a British accent!:)
Good luck, and keep moving forward.

By: JDMcDonnell

JDMcDonnell — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:13:14 +0000

I don’t recall seeing a blog. She might have. I knew about the Donald Maas agency and basically picked my way through the roster of agents until I found one who seemed to be the best fit for what I was writing – and that was her.
Stephen King’s agent? Considering the notoriety which comes from being SK’s agent, I suspect he is now hiding out in Dick Cheney’s old “undisclosed location.”

By: Mega Man

Mega Man — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:34:55 +0000

What happened to Stephen Kings agent!!?!!??!?!

By: Shawn Speakman

Shawn Speakman — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:16:04 +0000

Out of curiosity, did she have a blog then? What about your work made you query her?

By: JDMcDonnell

JDMcDonnell — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:05:19 +0000

You’re not going to believe this but about half a year ago I hit on Jennifer Jackson too (and I don’t mean cheesy pick-up lines in a bar). If my records serve me right, I got no reply whatsoever for my efforts (and no my query was not written in crayon, it was done using the crayon brush in photoshop), so getting a form rejection from her is not the worst possible outcome.
The search for an agent these days is just so thick with vitriol that it has become common practice for agents to reply by simply not replying. This realization stung a bit at first, but once you consider how much mail they must get it’s hard to blame them.