My first application to an agent has been rejected.
I am unsurprised and I am surprisingly unmoved.
What does make it a bummer, though, is that they seem to be excellent types and have about the only website that talks to unpublished writers as if they are people rather than a trying nuisance! It’s also a bummer because it means I’ve got to compose a meaningful pitch aimed at someone else in the pitiful amount of free time the mother of a 10 month old has in a day!
Arse.
What does surprise me is that I don’t seem to have lost any confidence. It sounds incredibly arrogant but I know my writing is good, I know it’s good enough to be worth publication. That’s not enough these days, of course, you have to be a red hot seller which I am so not and you have to have a certain kind of luck. Knowing somebody in publishing also helps.
Never mind. I heard somewhere that JK Rowling got rejected 20 times.
Onwards and upwards, I will now proceed to agency number two on my list. Meanwhile, here’s the letter.
Dear Mary
Thank you for your recent letter and the material which I enjoyed looking at. As a small agency we take on very few of the many writers who approach us each year and, having considered your work, I am afraid I do not feel we can effectively represent you.
I trust you will understand that the sheer volume of submissions to this office unfortunately prevents us from providing you with a more detailed and personal response.
May I take this opportunity to wish you success with another agent or publisher.
With all best wishes etc
A decent letter. And I know they can’t but oh how I wish I could go into the next submission with a hint, just one thing, that might need improved. To paraphrase Rowan Atkinson… I am a blind man in a darkened room looking for a black cat that isn’t there!
