Agents are the door to the publishing world. If you want to be published, then, you need an agent. They will represent you and will get the best deal for you and your books. Getting an agent will help you achieve your dreams of becoming a published author and although it’s not an easy task, it is not impossible.
In previous posts, we’ve covered important aspects of traditional publishing, including how to get the so-wanted literary agent. But why is it so difficult, though? Once you’ve sent a great query letter, and agents request a full manuscript what makes them reject your projects? Perhaps this is your case. Maybe you’ve sent a dozen of query letters and you’ve got a few full-manuscript requests, but your story has been kindly rejected.
Receiving a full manuscript request means that you are doing great actually, because you tempt an agent to seriously ask for more of your book. If you are rejected after that, it doesn’t mean that your book is bad, or that you are not author material.
Don’t be dismayed! Being a writer will probably mean that you’ll be rejected many times. It has happened to many great authors, so the odds are it can happen to us as well. Many authors are rejected many times until they find their perfect match. Stephen King’s “Carrie”, for instance was rejected 33 times, and he even threw it away… hopefully, his wife forced him to keep trying and the rest is history.
Top reasons why agents reject a manuscript
As I mentioned before, rejection is more common than you’d think, and it doesn’t always mean that your book is bad. I see it this way: think about getting an agent as a magical potion. Every potion has several ingredients, the same happens here. However, in this potion to get an agent there are two types of ingredients: those that depend on you and therefore you can fix (great narrative, compelling character, amazing plot, choosing appropriate agents), and those that are out of your control and therefore are subject to externals factors (personal taste, timing, market changes). And when any of these ingredients fails or is simply missing, your manuscript will probably be rejected.
Things you can Control:
1. Manuscript doesn’t match query letter
Perhaps your manuscript doesn’t live up to the premise of your query letter. This is one of the most common reasons why you’ll be rejected. At first, they might be attracted by the concept you presented in your query letter, but after having the full manuscript in their hands they find it a bit underwhelming. Therefore, make sure your query letter conveys your writing style and the spirit of your story, so to say.
If you don’t know how to write a query letter that will get you a full manuscript request check our previous post and then come back to this one.
2. Too much editing to be done before it’s ready to take it to a publisher
Perhaps your idea is amazing, you’ve had a best-selling idea, but your book is still on the rough. There’s still much work ahead before turning that first draft into a quality book. That being said, don’t even dare to send out your manuscript if you haven’t edited it yet. If it is a first draft, it can always be improved. The edition process is a necessary step that we cannot omit.
Agents will probably notice if you’ve edited or not your manuscript. If your book has plot holes, inconsistent character arcs, if some scenes don’t bring actually anything to the table, your manuscript NEEDS more edition. Not to mention finding any spelling or grammatical mistake.
If you’ve just finished your first draft, but don’t know how to self-edit it, check this article and start doing it today!!!
Although you can self-edit your book and we encourage doing so first, it is advisable to find a professional editor to help you correct any mistake you missed and have a professional opinion.
Editors have the expertise and experience to skillfully advise and support you through the edition of you manuscript. They can help you get the best out of your book, and make sure that everything is consistent form the very beginning to the end.
Edition scares, a lot. Sometimes you’ll have to rewrite a whole scene or chapter, or even the whole book. But it’s for its own sake! After that, you’ll have the best possible version of it, and agents will also take you seriously.
There’s a reason why editors edit and agents sell. So, if your manuscript can be improved, if there’s edition that needs to be made, don’t send it to an agent yet. Agents don’t usually get involved in edition, or accept a manuscript that needs to be edited. Why? Simple, first of all because they won’t even probably bother to keep reading and second and most important, because it will not generate enough revenue for them. If you consider the fact that they only earn commissions on sales to publishers, and in the meantime they don’t charge you with a dime; then, it is completely reasonable that they won’t even bother representing a book that still has a lot of work ahead.
3. Too much telling vs. showing
“Show don’t tell” is a repeated line in many writing workshops, and it is because of how important it is to show in your story rather than telling. For those unfamiliar with this golden rule, telling is when the writer states what the character is feeling, whereas showing is when the writer reveals it to us through their body language, or any other clues.
For example,
Telling: Clare was angry when she picked up the knife.
Showing: Clare’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the knife. Her cheeks flushed and her facial muscles became more rigid.
This represents a major issue, because many amateur writers struggle with when to tell and when to show. Too much telling makes the reader feel distant and has a negative impact on the immersive experience we want to achieve. This doesn’t mean telling is always wrong, there are cases in which is actually necessary. However, most of your book should show instead of tell.
If this is also difficult for you, or you want to know more about it you can check this post to learn our best tips to show and don’t tell.
4. No structure
So you have compelling characters and your prose is amazing, what is failing then? Perhaps it’s the structure. The way I see it as a reader, a great story is a combination of many little elements that make an incredible package. And the structure is included there.
Structure is vital to your story, and it also makes your book look more professional. We’ve talked about different important aspects of structure in previous posts and I suggest you to go check them if you haven’t done it yet.
Your story will fall flat if there’s no structure to support it, and agents will feel like there’s something missing.
Tip: If you don’t know how to structure your novel you can follow the Save the Cat Beat Sheet, created by Blake Snyder to write your book… and nope, using a formula to structure your book will neither make your story look formulaic nor limit your creativity. This will just help you determine important points in your plot to know when and in which order they happen. I suggested this formula because I find it easy, simple and clear, but there are actually way more that you can find on the Internet.
Struggling with structure…? Check this article to learn about the Three-Act Structure and start using it in your novel!
5. First page isn’t strong enough
There’s only one chance to cause a good first impression, and that’s kind of what it’s expected from your first page(s). Where does your story start? That’s perhaps one of the issues that can be fixed before sending your manuscript out.
So page one is really important, you need it to be captivating, and to catch the attention of the reader from the very first minute. Readers today are harder to entertain, and your goal is to make them root for your character since they start reading your story.
Agents usually expect to get an idea of the protagonist and/or other characters that are important to the plot from the first pages. They want to be compelled by your storytelling or your style. They want a reason to feel for your character and get a sense of setting. If you hit all these points you are probably doing great.
However, if you are failing here, perhaps they won’t be interested in reading any further. But how would you know this? Well, mainly because during your first pages the action is really slow, and then, BOOM! The real thing starts in chapter 5. So, pal if I need to make it to chapter 5 to really get caught by your story, that means there are things that can be improved.
Things you can’t Control
6. Agents’ Personal Taste
Yeap! This can happen too. Enthusiasm is key, actually. Agents want to fall completely in love with your book before making an offer to work with you. So, it’s a matter of personal taste here. Perhaps you have all the elements to a great story, but they just don’t like it… it’s as simple as that. It’s like when you recommend a movie or a TV show to a friend. For you, it can be the best thing on earth, but for the other person, it might not be as interesting.
For that reason, it’s really important to check their wish lists first. Be sure that the agent is looking for stories like yours, or look at which kind of books they’ve represented before to see if yours have something similar. Most agents have a Wish List where they list the genres and age categories they wish to work with. They can also enlist particular elements like the kind of protagonist, the atmosphere, tone, etc.
Find some agents’ Wish Lists here.
7. Timing and Market Changes
Timing and market changes also influence some rejections. These are pretty impersonal and have nothing to do with your writing, but with bad timing. Perhaps when you’ve sent your manuscript the market was not in its best time for your particular story, maybe they were lacking staff. Sometimes the person rejecting you won’t even get to read your manuscript because they’ve been told not to accept any manuscript by the time. So, this is actually out of your control but at least helps you understand how the publishing world works. That means, keep trying!
To find out if this is what’s happening to you, you need to pay special attention to the responses and how much time they take to reject your manuscript. If the rejection came shortly after you’ve sent it, perhaps this is what’s going on.
Also, you have to consider other factors like the fact that perhaps the agent is not receiving new manuscripts, or that they don’t think your book will fit in the market right now.
Summing up…
Rejection is going to happen, many times! That’s a fact, but at least knowing the reason behind the rejection can help you improve and be more aware of the factors that influenced that decision. Sometimes rejections come because of specific aspects of your manuscript that, fortunately, you can improve and find an agent that would like to work with you. However, the blame is not always on the writer. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of luck, market peculiarities, timing, and even the agent’s enthusiasm.
My point is, learn from those rejection letters. If there’s room for improvement, then improve. If there was not luck, keep trying. That’s the key to success. But never give up, published author rhymes with persistence.
Did you find this post useful? Do you know any other reason why manuscripts are rejected? Let us know in the comment section below.