Young Writers Society

Ooo tell us what it is as soon as you get home! Reading this thread is very exciting and definately provides motivation for us

Good luck! And get home asap XD

So I was overcome by curiosity..I drove home to read the letter. It's exactly what I expected. Just a generic rejection haha. But that's okay.

For anyone who is curious- they didn't offer any bits of advice or anything. It was a letter that could have been sent to absolutely anyone because it was so vague. Just the standard "We read your material but unfortunately it does not fit in with our book list at the moment. Good luck finding a publisher." I did pick one of the biggest publishing companies in the nation to send it to though, so maybe smaller places are more specific. I doubt it though. Every publisher/agency must get so many queries that it would be impossible to send individual feedback to everyone.

Still, there's something empowering about getting my first rejection letter. It really just makes me realize I'm in the middle of trying to get my first novel published. Obviously I realized it before, but now it's more real than it was before.

Anyway, I'm more determined than ever now that I've gotten the first one out of the way. I'm going to be querying agents now rather than publishers. I really did pick my first one knowing it was an inevitable rejection, but I'm glad I picked such a long stretch because I learned a lot about the process and I didn't get my hopes up. I've altered my query slightly so it's more concise now, so that should help. My synopsis still isn't concise enough though, but the next few places I'm querying don't require synopsizes.

On Monday I'm sending off 3 queries to 3 different agencies. Should be interesting. I'm more hopeful about these than the first one. I know technically I shouldn't send to more than 1 at a time, but these are still my first few queries so it'd be a miracle if I were accepted by any or all of them. I'm not trying to say my story is bad or anything, because believe me, I LOVE my story. I love the characters and the intricate plot. I'm just trying to be realistic with myself.

And while I'm waiting to hear back from those places, I'm going to work on additional editing and improving my synopsis.

If I had to give one piece of advice I learned from my first query experience...I think I'd just say that no matter how worried you are, do it. I spent soooo long before I put it in the mail because I was nervous about really entering the process, but now that I've started I feel so much more confident. Don't expect to be accepted right away. Just keep trying- take time between queries to edit and improve.

I'll update again after I send off the queries. I might post a copy of my query letter here for advice too. I'm starting to feel more comfortable around this place I'm ready to start opening up for criticism.

Aww that sucks it got rejected =( But keep chasing the rabbit and soon you will find it's hole!

So I've decided to dust off this thread and start keeping up with it again. I've been MIA from this site for a while unfortunately. I had a lot going on in my life. It not only kept me away from this thread, but from my novel as well.

Quick update over the last few months:
After a couple rejections from agents, I realized I should probably go through and edit the novel again. So I did, and I think it's infinitely better than it was before. I'm ready to start querying AGAIN, and super excited. I read my old query letter and quickly realized why I was rejected. It was terrible haha. I really understand the format and all the technical aspects of a query letter much better now, and I feel like my new draft is much more concise. I have a new boost of confidence with the whole process now that I've been away from it, and I'm ready to do it all again.

I've also started keeping a journal. A real journal. I bought a cute little diary-type notebook from the store (no lock and key though!), and I'm keeping all my ideas that pertain to this novel in it. Because, I'm not sure if I posted this, the novel I finished is one of three. I recently began the sequel, and the final installment is in outline form. So I'm constantly having new thoughts or ideas, and it's nice to handwrite them. If novels weren't so damn long I'd hand write them. But a little journal will have to do for now.

Hmm. What else? I'm working on a map It is fantasy, after all, and I did create a new world. There has to be a map. I just don't want to draw it myself. I'm so bad.

I'm also entering the Amazon Next Breakthrough Novel Contest. I heard about it, and thought...why not? My novel is done, it's freshly edited...I'm not expecting to win, but it would be pretty cool to make it through at least the first round. I hope I AT LEAST make the semi-finalists. I mean, they're picking up to 1,000 of only 5,000 entries. That's 1 in every 5. If I don't make that, I will be seriously disappointed, and will probably fall into the state of perpetual editing AGAIN because I'll think there is something terribly wrong. Beyond that I don't have many high expectations. I just really want to try. So I'll be putting off querying for a few months probably, waiting to see what happens. But what's a few months really? This whole writing process takes so long, a few months is nothing.