Hi
I finished my novel last year and have so far submitted to around 25 agents- still awaiting four replies from last batch. I had a request for the full ms in February from a large agency but the agent then said she hadn't fallen in love with it as she thought she would but that I was a very talented writer and that she would encourage me to continue submitting until I found someone who did. She also said she thought PERHAPS the plot needed work which confused me a little as the plot was very clear from the synopsis so can't work out why she asked for the full in that case! Another said she liked the idea but didn't like the way I had executed it on the basis of synopsis and first three chapters. I am wondering if I should continue to submit. Any advice based on what they have said would be appreciated but I can't go anywhere near affording to pay for readers or editorial. I really don't know where to go from here. Keep plugging away as- 21 seems an awful lot of"no thanks" (of those who bothered to answer at all) - or put it back in the drawer and do something else. Help!
Excuse all the misspelling above - writing on a mobile on predictive and can't see what I'm writing!
Hi Louise
Thank you for the thorough reply! I've sent it to 23 out of which I had one request for the full and at least five no replies. Still waiting for four our of those 23 as they were sent recently - so overall 14 explicit no's mainly saying not suitable for our list although this I feel is a standard letter response. It's a bit of a marmite book as its written on a split timeline which on agent said explicitly wasn't her thing so maybe that's the issue. The comment re execution was on first chapters only - the one who encouraged me to continue to submit elsewhere as it was a fall in love thing was based on full ms. I researched agents as well as I could but given its supernaturalist with a romantic strand split over parallel timelines that's no easy feat! What do you think? Am in process of a re read!
Hello,
I've been in a similar situation so will answer with that in mind.....
Have all the comments you've had been from agents who requested the full MS? I really don't think you can necessarily extrapolate comments about the first three chapters to the whole thing.
How many requests for the full have you had? No need to answer here, btw.... It's just that if I'd sent out 20+ queries and had only had, say, two requests for fulls I'd be looking very closely at the first three chapters.
Are you sure you're sending it to the "right" people? I.e. those with open lists in the right genre.
Have you had it beta read? I don't mean paying someone; I mean finding someone - or preferable two or three someones - you trust to read and comment. This is where a good writers' group is invaluable. Do you belong to one?
There's a lot of advice about continuing to soldier on if you believe in your book but if something isn't right - and something isn't right if, after 20+ submissions, no-one has picked you up - that's hard to do. That something that isn't right might be as "simple" and unyielding as 'great book but wrong place, wrong time, wrong agent' etc but you don't know. And it's well nigh impossible to make changes based on a few lines in an email from Agent X without a gut feeling that, yes, actually what s/he says makes a lot of sense.
My suggestion would be to put it aside for a while - two months minimum, longer if you can. Write something else, get on with your life (whatever else happens you've still written the darn thing; a great accomplishment!) and come back later to read it with fresh eyes. Maybe you'll cry again, maybe you'll cringe, maybe it'll be a bit of both but I'm sure you'll be reading it with changed eyes and maybe then you'll have a better sense of what to do.
Good luck and .