My office receives many submissions every week and we must send out many rejections right away. Those aren’t so painful. Rejected manuscripts include:

1.) Game plans on how to pick up more and hotter women.

2.) Horror novels.

3.) Stream of consciousness meanderings.

Others are near misses. The near misses are by far the most painful. They include:

1.) The talented fiction author missing the market in time period.

2.) The talented fiction author missing the market in setting.

3.) The talented nonfiction author with a great idea but not enough platform and no discernible way to build one in that area.

4.) The talented nonfiction author with a great idea in a topic that’s too crowded with authors with huge platforms too difficult to overcome.

The good news? A talented author willing to revamp and try us again has another chance. When we say “you are talented” (and we do say this) we mean it. If you are interested in us, be sure to revamp and follow up with a new idea. Turning that “no” into a “yes” will be great news for us all!

Your turn:

Have you ever gone back to an agent with a new idea? What happened?

Have you instead tried many agents with the same idea until you found representation?

Either way, tell us your story.