Query Quest: Baby’s First Query Rejection

Recently, I started querying agents with my supernatural thriller novel SECOND DAWN. Though I’ve published novels before, as well as a ton of short stories, the querying process is completely new to me. It does, however, fit neatly under the umbrella of rejectomancy, so I’ll be talking about the ups and downs of the process here like I do with short story submissions. Well, after sending a bunch of agent queries, I received my first inevitable rejection, and I’m gonna share that with you now.

Note, like I do with short story rejections, I’ll be removing all of the identifying info about the agent and agency. This is all about sharing my experiences with you folks so we can all learn from it. It’s not about calling out agents that passed on my book (that would be childish and unprofessional). This is a super subjective business, and rejections are just part of the process.

Here’s the rejection.

Dear Aeryn,

I hate to say this is going to be a pass as SECOND DAWN does not sound like a fit for me at this time.

Thank you for considering [Literary Agency], and please do stay the querying course as this industry is highly subjective. After all, Marlon James’s JOHN CROW’S DEVIL was rejected 78 times before being published, and now Marlon has a Man Booker Prize for A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS.

Best of luck with your future queries.

So, my only real frame of reference here is short story rejections, and this has a lot in common with them. It’s a form letter, and it gets right to the point, which I appreciate. The agent is passing on the book because it’s not a good fit. Pretty standard language there for a rejection. After that, it’s more boilerplate stuff, but I dig it. The example the agent cites is both encouraging and puts things into perspective. Like any form letter, there’s not much rejectomantic magic you can work on this. It’s simply a no.

In all, this is a nice, professional rejection that arrived in a very reasonable amount of time. I’d definitely query this agent again with another project if I can’t land an agent with the current one.

It’s great to get that first rejection out of the way. It didn’t sting much–I mean, I’ve built up a bit of a tolerance with over 500 short story rejections–but I might not feel the same way after five or ten or fifty. 🙂 Still, I’m excited and encouraged to be at the start of this journey and to see where it leads.

Questions or comments about this rejection? Tell me about it in the comments.