Friday, July 23, 2010

Honest Feedback

"Please feel free to query me with future projects."


Today the Rejectionist has invited everyone to blog about form rejections to celebrate the anniversary of her hilarious blog.  I've posted before about what form letters really mean, but many people still wish agents would provide real, personalized feedback.  But have you ever stopped to wonder what that would actually be like?


Probably not as great as you think:



Dear Author:


I very nearly sent you our standard form rejection letter in response to your query about your novel, RAINBOWS AT SUPPERTIME, an entirely odious work you have the temerity to describe as "literary."

The form letter would have said that I am extremely busy with current clients' manuscripts, and could not responsibly take on a new book. It would have said that my editorial contacts were less than ideal for this manuscript, and your work might better be handled by another agent. It would have said that our response indicated nothing negative about your work or its prospects in the marketplace. 


But that would have been a lie, and an irresponsible one. The fact is, even in a world where I had plenty of extra time, in a world where editors were far less selective in the works they were willing to publish, and where readers bought lousy books with indiscriminate abandon, I still would not represent RAINBOWS AT SUPPERTIME. You see, dear Author, I have standards.

In this business, where we must necessarily reject at least 99% of the manuscripts that come before us, it is sometimes difficult to explain exactly what it is we agents are in business to support. But it's not hard to explain what we are against. We are against RAINBOWS AT SUPPERTIME. It is offensive, both aesthetically and morally. The fact that it exists punctures my very faith in humanity.

Unpublished authors claim to like personalized responses to their submissions, and claim to desire helpful feedback. Here is some: stop submitting RAINBOWS AT SUPPERTIME. No honest or reputable agent will ever represent such a work. Offering this up to an editor would instantly destroy an agent's reputation in the publishing industry. Editors, you see, do not like to be insulted, and, frankly, neither do I. So stop wasting everybody's time.

Burn your book, Author. Destroy every copy. Erase it from your disk, format the drive, and smash your computer with a hammer.

And once that vital deed is done, in the name of all that is decent, stop writing. Stop writing at once. We in this profession hold sacred the power of the written word, and you befoul it. On some level, you have to know that RAINBOWS AT SUPPERTIME is awful. On some level, you must have been making some kind of sick joke when you submitted this. Really, Author, you should be ashamed of yourself. 

If this was the form letter, this is where I would invite you to query me with any future projects. But it is my sincere hope that you never write another word, and that I never hear your name again for the rest of my life.       

Best wishes,
Agent

8 comments:

  1. Ouch. Never thought of that . . .

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know that's what they're thinking. Double ouch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. All I can think now is, "Do you know how many vampire romance queries I get a day? Well, do ya', punk?"

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know... Sometimes this would be helpful. If I wrote a book THAT bad.... <.<

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello! I have found your posts both witty and hilarious, thus I have decided to follow you. I especially found the visual aide through this article helpful. You know how persuasive people with guns can be, after all.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fabulous post!! I love the picture. This was a case of a witty caption instantly capturing my attention for the rest of the post, and I wasn't disappointed. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. And whenever I get upset at a form rejection, I will visit this post and breathe a sigh of relief.

    Awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Not ALWAYS true. But frequently true. Hee hee.

    ReplyDelete