Date Rejected: 31st July 2014
Response Time: 1 month (/2 weeks)
Form for Response: Personally written by agent, no further request.
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As the submission dates suggest, this was a pretty unusual submission.
I initially got in touch with this agent over twitter in order to find out which of their agents would be best suited to receiving my submission (pro tip: ALWAYS identify a single agent in submissions. It shows awareness of the agency and consideration in your submission). They replied quickly, with a nice, friendly response and I duly sent off my submission by snail mail, as requested on their submission page.
Then, on the 17th I received a tweet, not from the agency as a whole, but from the specific agent who'd been pointed out to me to begin with, asking if I'd sent my submission. I told her I had and 'hoped it hadn't gotten lost in the post'. She then told me to send it again via email just in case. So off submission version 1.2 went and she immediately replied to say she'd received it.
The rejection I got today was, while obvious a disappointing one, still the most positive one I've had so far. The agent emailed to say,
"I wanted to like this - and I almost really, really do - [but] it did not grab me by the throat..."It feels like a step in the right direction to at least get a personally written reply. This agency has a strong background in fantasy, though they're not as grand nor as established as many of the more well known agencies. I wish I could have at least made it as far as a full request. I've asked for some feedback, so maybe that will give me something to work from...
Aaargh - torture! That sounds like such a near miss. It has to be worth working on if you get some helpful feedback. And DEFINITELY a sign that you mustn't give up xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Helen. The agent was kind enough to give me some suggestions about improving the flow of one of my scenes. It's great to get feedback, instead of just a plain old 'no'.
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