I found this in my inbox today:
Hi Angie,
This is a really tough one because your writing really resonated with me and I think you’ve written a very true, authentic story that just gets the way teenage girls think and speak and behave. The problem is I think the story is too quiet and I think based on some other projects I’ve tried to sell over the past 2 years, I don’t think I could sell it. Not that everything these days has to be paranormal and dystopic and vampires, but it does have to have a strong hook, whether it’s issue-based or high-concept or some kind of shocking scenario … it has to have some special that publishers can use to sell it. I’m sure this novel is very dear to you and I wish you all the best with it. But I think it would be very tough to break you out as an author with Spectacle. If you’re working on anything else I’d be happy to take a look. Otherwise I need to, regretfully, step aside.
This is a nice rejection. VERY nice. I get that. But to post it is extremely painful for me. I hadn't planned to divulge that I was submitting my YA manuscript until I could announce to you all, "Hey! I landed an agent!"
But you know what? I don't think I can write what they want. I just don't think I have "high concept" or "paranormal" or, evidently, "strong hook" in me.
Right now, tonight, here is where my mind is: Fuck. It. I'm done.
no no no no no no!!!!!!
Keep going. Just imagine yourself in a couple years, being interviewed about your runaway bestseller (which has of course been optioned by Drew Barrymore) saying, "I just want to tell everyone to keep going when you think you're done. I got rejected 29 times before so-and-so believed in me. So if I can do it, you can too!"
Posted by: Vanessa McGrady Spiller | November 09, 2011 at 09:37 PM
I think it's the nicest rejection I've ever seen. I agree with Vanessa, keep going. I worked with teens and young adults for 15 years. There are many who appreciate good writing and a quiet story.
Posted by: Bobbi | November 10, 2011 at 01:29 AM
I agree with Vanessa and Bobbi.
Posted by: Vicky | November 10, 2011 at 02:44 AM
Maybe you should be doing an adult novel? It sounds like your writing is more nuanced. Not to knock YA fiction, but it's often kind of tawdry. I think you might be a different sort of writer (based on your blog, at least). In any case, you're clearly a writer, and a gifted one, too. Keep going. (And I'm sorry, too. I just got a rejection letter and they suck.)
Posted by: Jennifer Jo | November 10, 2011 at 04:12 AM
I agree with every word in Jennifer Jo's comment up to the rejection letter sentence since I'm not a writer. I've commented here many times because your writing often takes my breath away. And, yes, I'm decades past the YA genre although I do read more of it than I would like because my grands ask me to.
Please continue to write and to post here for my pleasure...giggle
Posted by: Bev | November 10, 2011 at 06:44 AM
Nope. I feel the same way about my fiction. I won't quit if you won't. Wish we lived closer. Hang in there. xo
Posted by: Chrisy | November 10, 2011 at 07:12 AM
Don't give up!I know this is totally sucky and frustrating, but there are plenty more agents in the sea. This just wasn't the one for you. It's not you, it's her.
Posted by: Kristy | November 10, 2011 at 09:46 AM
When rejections get me down, I remember this quote:
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
Wayne Gretzky
Posted by: Lisa Tognola | November 10, 2011 at 02:41 PM
Not fuck it. Fuck them.
I hate this publishing climate.
What's wrong with a quiet story? It's what I want to read...
Posted by: slouchy | November 12, 2011 at 09:14 AM
My 14-year-old daughter would love a book like yours. She's been over mass marketed young adult fiction for years now because it's such fluff or just plain weird. She likes a chewy read...
It takes courage to create and even more courage to put your work out there. It is a horrible publishing climate, the rejection is clearly not tied to the literary value of your work but the weak market and spineless publishers.
Keep writing. Say what you have to say. Giving up won't be any less painful than rejection. At least you will have tried and tried again, and at least you will have a manuscript completed and done, published or not.
Posted by: V-Grrrl @ Compost Studios | November 12, 2011 at 12:11 PM
I have several different variations of this exact letter. I almost wonder if this came from the same agent, as the opening is nearly word-for-word identical with one of mine.
It lives only in my memory, because when I decided to self-pub, I deleted all the emails.
When I got the first rejection email for my first novel, I cried. It's an incredibly difficult thing to hear, no matter how nice the letter is--and this letter is pretty nice! If it's any consolation, it does get easier. The second one does not hurt quite as bad, and eventually, even the rejections feel like accomplishments.
Posted by: Tamara Paulin | November 12, 2011 at 04:17 PM