So I have twenty-six queries out right now. No, twenty-five, because I got a same-day rejection yesterday — same day service! I’m going to stop querying for a while (I have close to 45 left to send) to see what happens with this.
I have to remind myself that there are several reasons why queries get rejected that have nothing to do with the quality of my book:
- The topic of my book isn’t “hot” right now
- The agent only has one slot left in their list and they know exactly what they want to put in it and it’s not my book
- My query didn’t “speak” to them or they didn’t “feel” it (literal rejections I’ve gotten)
- The agent had a bad day (I’m not kidding)
- There’s a lot, a LOT more queries coming in than there are books being sold in traditional publishing
So I’m left with that question, always: What do I do if I get 25 more rejections?
I send the rest.
And if I don’t get an agent then, I tweak things and try again. And remind myself that the agents are rejecting my query, not me.
Words Like Me 