Being an aspiring author you get used to receiving rejection letters: it just comes with the job. I can not imagine being a Literary Agent is an easy job. It kind of reminds be of an endless bad American Idol audition reel where personal opinion mixed with experience and industry knowledge influence which manuscripts you say Yes or No to. The rewarding part of the job, I suspect, is finding that diamond in the rough you know with be a shining gem.
I am not sure if it is due to the Webook’s amazing Agentinbox, or the caliber of the Agent (I suspect it is both) but I submitted a query letter and sample pages expecting to wait the standard 4-6 weeks before receiving a response. Imagine my surprise when Agentinbox sends me an email indicating my submission has been updated.
I hurried to my computer, eagerly logged in and was met with a rejection letter from the Agent. Sure I was disappointed, no-one likes to receive a form-letter rejection. But like I said, it’s comes with the job. It’s nothing personal, the Agents are doing what they are paid to do.
Right about now, you may why am I writing a post about a rejection letter, and one I so boldly stated is the best rejection ever? Well, it wasn’t the response that made the rejection stand out, it was the speed of which I received it. I take care in whom I send my query letters too, and this particular agent certainly justified my choice.
So, unnamed agent, thank you for your prompt response and being such a professional that you took the time to respond quickly. To us authors, this type of professionalism speaks volumes about your character.
Next time, perhaps you will choose my manuscript. I can hope.
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Forgive me for sounding dense, but what made you so sure that a quick, 24-hour rejection implied that they took the time to read it? Surely such limited time could also imply that they simply sped through it or, worse still, didn’t bother at all. Was there content within the email to signify that they had in fact read it? Details of the story, maybe…?
Dave
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It is a valid question and to be honest, I don’t know how long the agent took to read my submission. What I do know however, is that the Agent is very well respected and they viewed my bio, query letter and short synopsis. This is one of the great features of AgentInbox: you can see what parts of our submission the agent reviewed. You don’t get that with a query letter and a SASE.
I hope that helps. I am certainly in no way affiliated with Webook, but I am happy to give credit where credit is due. For me, the AgentInbox is a great new tool to my writer’s toolbox.
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