What I'm Looking For
Someone very sensibly asked if I would let people know what it is I'm seeing in submissions that I reject -- or, more accurately I suppose, what I'm not seeing. So this post is mostly on rejection, which can be a bit depressing, but I hope it's also instructive and helpful for those of you who are feeling frustrated with the process. (Which, I have to say, is everyone, because even when you're published, there is rejection.)
I've been sending out a lot of rejections lately. This frustrates me almost as much as it frustrates you, because I'm not here to break hearts or to burst bubbles, I'm here to find great material and, hopefully, help it on its way to publication. I love finding new clients, so it's very frustrating when I'm having difficulty signing anyone new. But, the truth is that the longer I am in this business, the pickier I get. There's a reason for that. It's tough out there. Tough for agents, as well as for writers. We face rejection, too, when that terrific manuscript we signed gets turned away by editor after editor. And we then must go back to our clients with the bad news. I don't like disappointing anyone, my clients least of all. But I understand that just because a book is rejected, does not mean it is unworthy of publication. The truth is there are a lot of books that could feasibly be published, but editors need to pick and choose because they are only allowed to publish so many titles per season or per year. They must love what they sign, because they are going to need to fight for its right to take up one of those slots.
To a lesser extent, agents have the same problem, only we are sandwiched between writers and editors. We want to sign books we love by writers who excite us and whom we click with, because the plan is to work with these writers over the course of their career, not just on a single book. But the book needs to be good enough, or close enough for us to help them edit it and shape it up, that we as agents feel that we can convince an editor that the book is worth one of their precious slots. So, there you have it; it's all about supply and demand.
So, what has been wrong with the submissions I've been reading? It varies from project to project. Sometimes the writing overall is just not polished to a professional level. Yes, I'll work with a writer to shape a book up, but if they're missing some of the basics of grammar, etc., I'm not taking that on. I'm not here to teach writing 101, so if you are in doubt of your skills in this respect, I highly recommend taking a refresher course or memorizing some good grammar books or style books. We're not talking whether or not you're in favor of the serial comma (the one that appears before "and" in a list of items), but whether or not you get your pronoun agreement right. If you're telling me that "Joe and him went down to the lake," I'm tossing you on the reject pile. It's a matter of expediency.
Okay, but let's assume you have the tools of your trade all packed up in your tool box, and you aren't going to scare me with your third grade grammar errors. There is still a level of polish I expect from professional writing. I want to be able to ignore the flow of words in favor of what they are actually saying, and this has to do with word choice, sentence structure, length, and rhythm, etc. My recommendation here is to read parts of your work out loud and listen to how it sounds. Read into a tape recorder and play yourself back if necessary. Are you repeating certain words over and over? Have you actually forgotten words in the middle of a sentence that makes it incomprehensible? Do you tend to use some big fancy words repeatedly in a way that draws attention to them? Many of these issues can be resolved by taking one more spin through your draft, or even giving it one final rewrite. As a rule, manuscripts seem to go out into the universe one draft too early.
Your main character: I must love your protagonist. I need to relate to this person, male or female, on some sort of an emotional level, not just at the beginning of the book, where you've caught my attention, but all the way through. The character must change, must grow over the course of the story, and it must be believable. All too often I like the character in the first few chapters, only to find their growth arc is hard to follow or accept because the writer has them doing things that seem out of character, just so that the story can move in a certain direction. You need to ask yourself, at each step of the story, would your character really make this choice? Take this action? Is this a natural progression for the protagonist?
Descriptions: Yes, details are lovely. I want to feel I'm right there with the characters, experiencing the same dangers, delights, weather, whatever. But you should also use details sparingly and try to blend them into the descriptions, action, and dialogue, rather than just including them as an information dump introducing each chapter or scene.
Adverbs. Those trickly little -ly words that describe your action. There are writing books that would have you avoid them entirely, but they do have their uses. But again, use sparingly. Make sure that you're not letting them do the work that your verb should -- or maybe already does -- take care of. For instance, "Go to hell," Bob shouted loudly. Well, shouting tends to be loud, yeah. So, redundant. Yes, this is a simplistic example, but you get the point. Please don't drown me in adverbs.
That extra something. Here's the kicker. You can write the most beautiful book in the world, with engaging characters and a fabulous story arc, with perfect grammar and spelling and structure, and I still might reject it. Because I just didn't like the story on a very personal level. Think about the last book you bought and didn't like the story. It doesn't mean other people didn't--clearly enough people did for it to get published. But we're all just human, with our own tastes etc. And so, maybe I just didn't click with your story. This happens a lot, because I need to really love it to sign it. And if you want to know why, see the supply and demand discussion above.
This process is hard. I get that. It's frustrating and soul destroying and can make you miserable. And my honest advice is, if you can't handle it with grace and just pick up and move to the next submission or write your next book, if you can't just keep your eye on your goals and enjoy the process of storytelling in the meantime, then get out of this business. Because there are always going to be many, many more talented writers than there are places for their books. It's just the way it is.
However, if writing is all you can ever imagine doing, and you love it, and you're willing to put up with rejection and try to learn from it, if you're willing to keep polishing your prose and dreaming up the next great idea, then more power to you, and good luck. Because it is possible to break through to the next level, you just have to keep at it. No one ever succeeded by not trying.
I've been sending out a lot of rejections lately. This frustrates me almost as much as it frustrates you, because I'm not here to break hearts or to burst bubbles, I'm here to find great material and, hopefully, help it on its way to publication. I love finding new clients, so it's very frustrating when I'm having difficulty signing anyone new. But, the truth is that the longer I am in this business, the pickier I get. There's a reason for that. It's tough out there. Tough for agents, as well as for writers. We face rejection, too, when that terrific manuscript we signed gets turned away by editor after editor. And we then must go back to our clients with the bad news. I don't like disappointing anyone, my clients least of all. But I understand that just because a book is rejected, does not mean it is unworthy of publication. The truth is there are a lot of books that could feasibly be published, but editors need to pick and choose because they are only allowed to publish so many titles per season or per year. They must love what they sign, because they are going to need to fight for its right to take up one of those slots.
To a lesser extent, agents have the same problem, only we are sandwiched between writers and editors. We want to sign books we love by writers who excite us and whom we click with, because the plan is to work with these writers over the course of their career, not just on a single book. But the book needs to be good enough, or close enough for us to help them edit it and shape it up, that we as agents feel that we can convince an editor that the book is worth one of their precious slots. So, there you have it; it's all about supply and demand.
So, what has been wrong with the submissions I've been reading? It varies from project to project. Sometimes the writing overall is just not polished to a professional level. Yes, I'll work with a writer to shape a book up, but if they're missing some of the basics of grammar, etc., I'm not taking that on. I'm not here to teach writing 101, so if you are in doubt of your skills in this respect, I highly recommend taking a refresher course or memorizing some good grammar books or style books. We're not talking whether or not you're in favor of the serial comma (the one that appears before "and" in a list of items), but whether or not you get your pronoun agreement right. If you're telling me that "Joe and him went down to the lake," I'm tossing you on the reject pile. It's a matter of expediency.
Okay, but let's assume you have the tools of your trade all packed up in your tool box, and you aren't going to scare me with your third grade grammar errors. There is still a level of polish I expect from professional writing. I want to be able to ignore the flow of words in favor of what they are actually saying, and this has to do with word choice, sentence structure, length, and rhythm, etc. My recommendation here is to read parts of your work out loud and listen to how it sounds. Read into a tape recorder and play yourself back if necessary. Are you repeating certain words over and over? Have you actually forgotten words in the middle of a sentence that makes it incomprehensible? Do you tend to use some big fancy words repeatedly in a way that draws attention to them? Many of these issues can be resolved by taking one more spin through your draft, or even giving it one final rewrite. As a rule, manuscripts seem to go out into the universe one draft too early.
Your main character: I must love your protagonist. I need to relate to this person, male or female, on some sort of an emotional level, not just at the beginning of the book, where you've caught my attention, but all the way through. The character must change, must grow over the course of the story, and it must be believable. All too often I like the character in the first few chapters, only to find their growth arc is hard to follow or accept because the writer has them doing things that seem out of character, just so that the story can move in a certain direction. You need to ask yourself, at each step of the story, would your character really make this choice? Take this action? Is this a natural progression for the protagonist?
Descriptions: Yes, details are lovely. I want to feel I'm right there with the characters, experiencing the same dangers, delights, weather, whatever. But you should also use details sparingly and try to blend them into the descriptions, action, and dialogue, rather than just including them as an information dump introducing each chapter or scene.
Adverbs. Those trickly little -ly words that describe your action. There are writing books that would have you avoid them entirely, but they do have their uses. But again, use sparingly. Make sure that you're not letting them do the work that your verb should -- or maybe already does -- take care of. For instance, "Go to hell," Bob shouted loudly. Well, shouting tends to be loud, yeah. So, redundant. Yes, this is a simplistic example, but you get the point. Please don't drown me in adverbs.
That extra something. Here's the kicker. You can write the most beautiful book in the world, with engaging characters and a fabulous story arc, with perfect grammar and spelling and structure, and I still might reject it. Because I just didn't like the story on a very personal level. Think about the last book you bought and didn't like the story. It doesn't mean other people didn't--clearly enough people did for it to get published. But we're all just human, with our own tastes etc. And so, maybe I just didn't click with your story. This happens a lot, because I need to really love it to sign it. And if you want to know why, see the supply and demand discussion above.
This process is hard. I get that. It's frustrating and soul destroying and can make you miserable. And my honest advice is, if you can't handle it with grace and just pick up and move to the next submission or write your next book, if you can't just keep your eye on your goals and enjoy the process of storytelling in the meantime, then get out of this business. Because there are always going to be many, many more talented writers than there are places for their books. It's just the way it is.
However, if writing is all you can ever imagine doing, and you love it, and you're willing to put up with rejection and try to learn from it, if you're willing to keep polishing your prose and dreaming up the next great idea, then more power to you, and good luck. Because it is possible to break through to the next level, you just have to keep at it. No one ever succeeded by not trying.