On Twitter yesterday, Penguin executive editor Anne Sowards posted “An offer I made was turned down. Everybody gets rejected.” And it’s worth reiterating — rejection isn’t just something that happens to authors. Rejection happens to agents, when we fall in love with a manuscript only to find the author already has multiple offers of representation, [...]
We all know how the publishing process is supposed to go. You write a fabulous book, then land your dream agent, who sells your book to a publisher. A year later–voila! You’re a published author. Except, it doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes that first book never finds a publisher. Sometimes the project dies along [...]
I wish this post was just off the cuff, and not in connection with anything I’m doing, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. The sad fact about publishing is this: not everyone is going to make it. Sure, in this technologically evolving world, you can take your manuscript that’s been roundly rejected and self-publish it, [...]
Really eye-catching shoes, but how do you walk in them? for Pablo, who wants to know, “What does it mean when an agent rejects a manuscript and says, ‘I didn’t make a strong enough connection with the manuscript to offer representation.’”
Chinese shoes for Susan, who writes, “I am writing a memoir about my marriage to a man from central China and have received requests for partials from a number of agents. And rejections from most of those agents. So in early June, I started working with a couple of editors to get my sample chapters in better shape. I’ve gone through 2-3 rounds of changes with each editor, both of whom I’ve paid and have said that the chapters have vastly improved. One agent has patiently been waiting for my samples since July, so I sent off 50 pages to him yesterday. My question is this: if this agent rejects my samples, do I query another agent and send the same samples, or do I go back to the editors and revise again?”
