Hello everyone,
I have just finished my first book, a horror story, and have sent submissions to about 25 select literary agents. The majority of these submissions have been ignored, but a handful of agents have sent kind responses to say ‘there’s a lot to enjoy, but it’s not the right fit’ or ‘this book is not for me, but please keep me in mind if you need an agent for your next book’. Given I am an unpublished author, I thought this feedback was encouraging, but would like to know whether other authors here would recommend a) persist and keep sending submissions b) get their submission package reviewed professionally for a fee.
Any feedback/ comments would be welcome.
Areas of interest
Hi Meg,
Congratulations on getting your book finished and submitting it out into the world!
I would absoultely say that to receive feedback on submissions is great. Even though it's a pass for now, there are so many factors that go into an agent's ability to represent you (and many factors that are out of your control) so I'd say this is hugely encouraging.
Have any agents given you any more specific feedback concerning the story? If not, I would advise to continue sending out in small batches to agents. If an agent has said 'I liked it, but felt the pacing sagged here or these characters needed work' then perhaps comments like that are worth pressing pause on submission and considering your story again.
Although editing services are useful (and we do over a submission package review on our site!) we don't believe that they're entirely necessary just in order to get published. If you have the money to do so then, great! But I would recommend to keep submitting in small batches and take stock if/when you receive further feedback.
Best of luck! I know how difficult of a process it can be and we're all cheering you on here!
Clare
W&A
I am in a similar position to you. I had my book read by a couple of beta readers but didn't get it edited professionally. I sent it to 8 agents, 2 of which sent boiler-plate rejections which contained almost identical wording to yours, the other 6 didn't reply at all.
I nearly continued submitting, but I decided this response was in itself feedback that it wasn't yet good enough so I paused and took stock. I sent it to another beta reader who noticed a rather glaring plot issue I and my other beta readers had totally missed, and I'm considering paying for some mentoring on writing to see if my style needs work.
I suppose I would suggest (purely based on my experience) that perhaps your feedback (or lack of) suggests a similar thing to me, i.e. that it isn't quite there yet. How you fix that is up to your personal means. A full manuscript edit by a professional would probably be useful depending on your experience, but they are costly and don't guarantee success.
I guess what I'm suggesting is make it the best you can absolutely make it within your means before continuing your submission journey. You can really only submit a piece of work once to an agent, so make it count.
And if that still doesn't work, the advice I've read is keep writing. This might not be the one, but maybe book 2 will be your big break, or book 3.
Good luck!