Roller Coaster of No
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
If you have embarked on the querying journey, or as I like to call it the “roller coaster of no,” then you understand the sentiment. Pushing your words out into the world only to receive a form letter back is—well—devastating.
You press send on a query email and then you wait for your turn on the ride. And out of nowhere (maybe months later), a response appears in your inbox. The lap bar clicks down. You’re heart races and you’re catapulted from zero to sixty as you open the email that could change your life. Climbing higher and higher as you read the agent’s words, only to reach the top and realize you’ve hit the first big hill: “I just couldn’t connect with the story.” And you’re falling fast with a corkscrew racing toward you. By the time you are pulling into the station, you don’t know which way is up. And instead of the ride stopping, it blows past the station and goes again and again as you send more and more queries.
As a beginner, I dove into the process wanting to learn more than anything, but with each rejection, I found myself more confused and less confident. Each time I got a response, I’d read into it as much as possible. I dissected each word. Was it a form response? Did this agent say that to everyone? Was there a clue on what to do next?
There rarely was. I was left in no-man’s-land trying to decipher what was wrong with my novel. That’s when I fell into the trap. I start devising experiments like A/B tests (flashbacks from my user experience days). I would write two different query letters and send them to agents hoping one would finally strike a chord. Or the next day an agent would ask for a sample and I’d get excited and change my first chapter to make sure it hit home. I had versions everywhere.
I finally realized this was not a surefire strategy because what I was really searching for was my novel’s soul mate. Like in life, it’s not an easy process. Book deals are the same, some people search for half their life for the right one. You’re trying to match your style and work with the interest, list, and connections of an agent. It doesn’t always happen overnight, but there are a few things you can do to ease the pain of hearing “no” on repeat.
One, don’t sulk. Well, maybe after the first one, just to get it out of your system. Hang up the rejection and throw a few darts at it—go ahead; it’s cathartic. But otherwise, it is just retracting from your process. You hear no, you send another.
Second, do not instantly start corkscrew editing. You will end up with a choppy, disconnected novel. If you start cutting here and adding there based on a few surface comments, you will end up holding a tattered pile of scenes that used to be the coherent story you set out to write. Now don’t misunderstand, I am not advising you to never take a fresh look at your work. I am not telling you to keep from making that first chapter more engaging, especially if you can pinpoint areas of improvement based on feedback from agents or others. But I am saying to be confident in your work especially if you polished it and gave it everything you had.
Third, don’t trash the emails, no matter how devastating they are. Keep good records and stay organized. It will pay big-time down the road to know who responded and how. It will also ensure you do not submit work to someone who has already passed on it.
And fourth, most importantly, never respond with anger. The world of publishing feels huge when you are getting rejections, but when you stick your foot in your mouth it shrinks to a startling small size.
Okay, now that you know what not to do. What can you do?
First, set goals and keep moving forward. Within these goals, set some benchmarks for your querying process. How many queries will you send out before you start to make edits? How much feedback will you gather before you decide to change your opening or deepen your protagonist?
These parameters will keep you from editing and editing every time you think an agent alluded to something that was wrong or when someone said they did not connect with your writing. Remember some people send over a hundred queries before they ever get any meaningful feedback. But don’t toss the feedback (see the fourth tip below).
Second, start writing again. Assuming you just finished months of editing the manuscript you’re sending out, starting something fresh and new should feel invigorating (or at least a welcomed change). Write anything, just occupy the creative part of your brain; otherwise, it might drive you insane.
Third, talk with other writers. Commiserate on the process, and get advice on how they deal with rejection and move forward. Writing friends have saved me from curling up in my dark hole and never writing again.
Fourth, pay close attention to the process. Organization in this part of the journey. It can save embarrassment and time, and also give you valuable data about your work. If ten agents made a similar comment, it’s a pretty sure bet that a little work in that area would go a long way. So track, track, track. Start a spreadsheet of who you sent what and when. What did they say? This data can help you make decisions later on, especially regarding when and which changes to make in your manuscript or possibly who might want to see this again if you do make those changes. It also keeps you from accidentally resubmitting to agents who were clear they weren’t interested. You don’t want to tarnish your name before it’s on your cover.
Finally, tap into the strength that got you this far … it’s damn hard to finish a novel. Something got you all the way to “the end”—use it again to get you over this finish line and off this ride.
Don’t let the roller coaster of rejections keep you from riding again. Find that strength, push up that lap bar, and get the heck off the roller coaster. Just keep pushing your work out there and it will meet its match.
Have you queried? What was your experience like? What tips do you have for other writers? Share it below.
Good luck and happy editing!
For more tips and in-depth guides on revising your stories, check back for more posts.
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