Why Agents Are Rejecting Your Work
No, it isn't because you have too few followers on social media
Thank you to Julie Murdock and
for giving me feedback on this article before it went live. I wanted to make sure I answered as many questions as writers might have on this topic, and their insights helped me with that goal.
As someone who has queried many times, I know it’s an aggravating, demoralizing process. I have a binder buried in my closet called The Binder of Fame and Shame; it used to hold every rejection (and acceptance) letter I received from agents (until I got tired of adding to it). My friends find it morbid, but turning my angst into a catalog made me feel better. These rejections are badges of courage, I would tell myself. They prove I’ve been bold enough to risk failure.
I’ve signed with three different agents in my career, but I’ve gotten my fair share of rejections. Most of them were form letters, the same canned response given to every author an agent doesn’t want to work with. Out of all the personalized rejections I’ve received, some were baffling (“If you were to take one of your chapters and use it for the basis of a different novel, I’d consider it”). Some were rude (“I read your manuscript. It just doesn’t work”). Some were helpful (“Your narrative loses itself in minutiae.” Indeed it did, and I worked to improve it.).
But mostly, rejections are utterly cryptic. Form responses and non-responses tell the writer nothing about the quality of her work. Personalized responses can contradict each other.
While the most difficult part of rejection seems to be accepting that there might very well be something I have yet to improve on, the truth is not knowing why I’ve been rejected is the actual challenge. How can I improve if I don’t know what the problem is?
I see so many invented reasons for rejection, and believing those misconceptions isn’t going to help anyone. Today, I’m going to list the reasons agents tend to reject a writer’s query letter or fiction manuscript.
First, let’s understand the different types of rejections an agent might send:
A form rejection
A form rejection is a canned response sent to almost every writer that agent rejects. How do you know if you’ve received a form rejection?
If it’s rather short and doesn’t mention specifics about your story beyond your title, it’s probably a form rejection.
It’ll usually say something like, “I found a lot to like” or “I appreciate the chance to read this” or “While your idea has merit…” or some other vague praise, along with something like “I’m not sure I can place this” or “I’m not convinced I’m the right person for this” or “I don’t have the enthusiasm required.”
You can check QueryTracker to find out if other writers have received the same canned response from the agent you queried.
A personalized rejection
A personalized rejection is a somewhat longer email that might include some of the phrases above as well as more specific feedback about your work.
It might include reasons your work is strong, along with reasons it needs improvement or reasons it might not be right for this particular agent.
It might also include an invitation to send more work.
A personalized rejection is a sign your work is good and that it either just needs a revision or you need to find an agent who’s a better fit.
No response at all
The non-response has become quite common, alas. Many agencies tell writers that if they don’t respond to a query letter, the writer should consider that a rejection.
But a non-response might also mean that the agent just hasn’t read your query letter yet. Which means you don’t actually know if your work needs improvement or if it just hasn’t been read!
The prevalence of the non-response is difficult to accept, but it doesn’t change our fundamental strategy of committing to the work of writing well and querying widely.
Why do agents send out form rejections? Why do they often not respond at all? Here are some reasons agents often don’t tell us exactly why they’re rejecting us:
They don’t have time. They receive truckloads of queries every week, even while they have clients whose work they must prioritize. (Can you imagine signing with an agent and then hearing that she won’t be able to send out your work for a year because she has to send detailed responses to every query letter she receives? It just wouldn’t work!)
They don’t know. They can sense there’s something off about the work or the premise, but they don’t have time to figure out what it is and articulate it.
They can’t be sure you want their critique. Not every writer wants to hear why an agent thinks their work isn’t ready for publication. Some writers even respond rudely to feedback from agents.
They don’t want to say that your public persona is a problem. Sometimes an agent doesn’t want to work with a writer who comes across as abrasive or disorganized in the query letter or online.
That leaves us to help each other figure out why our work is being rejected or ignored. And we have to be honest with ourselves: oftentimes, we need to improve before we can move forward. It’s easy to wallow in the feeling that we aren’t properly appreciated, but I promise you, no one is going to seek you out, notice that you’ve been unfairly overlooked, and offer you a publishing contract.
Wrong Guesses
With little to no feedback to go on, writers are left to guess why their work isn’t getting signed by agents—and they often guess wrong. They assume that agents want to work with only those writers who are already published or who have a huge online presence (the latter might be true for non-fiction writers, but we’re focusing on fiction here).
Here are some reasons you probably are not getting rejected by agents:
You’ve never published before.
Debut novelists can make a big splash, so there’s no reason for agents to reject unpublished writers outright. I signed with all three of my agents without ever having published anything. (My third agent is the one I have to thank for getting my novels published.)
You have no real social media presence.
If you have hundreds of thousands of social media followers, that might help you get an agent or a book deal. But with some exceptions, an author’s social media doesn’t tend to sell books, so it’s not going to be the deciding factor in whether an agent signs you. If you have a low follower count on social media but you’ve written a stunning, marketable novel, your neglected Instagram account isn’t going to hold you back.
And here are some things you might think would help you land an agent that aren’t really going to help much at all:
You’ve published in a non-pro market.
Publishing thoughtful essays on Substack is great, but it’s not relevant to an agent. Same goes for publishing a story in a magazine that pays only in contributor copies.
If your previous publications are in “pro” markets—publications that pay writers well for their work, you should mention that in your query. If you’ve published a short story in a pro magazine, or an article on a paying website on a subject matter that relates to your novel, or if you’ve self-published a novel that had an impressive number of sales, you can mention those things. They might not convince an agent to sign you, but they might sway her toward requesting your manuscript.
You’re a member of a writing organization like SFWA or ITW.
Memberships show that you take your writing seriously, so you can feel free to mention them in a query letter. But they won’t be a deciding factor in whether an agent signs you, or even whether she requests your manuscript. (And an agent probably doesn’t need to know that you’ve been to writing retreats or that you’re in a critique group or anything like that, by the way.)
Your manuscript has won awards.
Mentioning a respected award your manuscript has won might push an agent toward requesting your manuscript. It won’t be a deciding factor in whether she represents you, though. A lot of manuscript awards aren’t really legit; they’re more often ways for a group to make money by asking you to pay to be considered for the award. So they’re not necessarily impressive to an agent. And in the end, a manuscript needs to please a publisher, not an awards committee. Still, I really don’t think there’s any harm in mentioning an award in a query letter; it shows you’re committed to your work.
Okay, so why are agents actually rejecting your work, and how do you move forward in a strategic way?
First, I give you the following illustration as a bit of encouragement before we continue. I have been through some terrible lows in this industry, and I know what it’s like to feel that it’s an impossible path. It isn’t impossible. If it means the world to you to share you stories with the public, you will find a way!
Here are all the reasons an agent might reject your work, along with ideas on how to remedy the problem. Let’s inch forward together!
If an agent has rejected (or ignored) your QUERY LETTER, the problem might be…
Your approach to querying
You might not have followed the agent’s instructions. Every agent has her own preferences for receiving query letters. If you don’t follow an agent’s specific instructions, your query might get deleted.
Check each agent’s website for instructions before reaching out.
You didn’t query the right agent. If an agent only represents adult romance novels and you queried for a children’s fantasy novel, you’re not going to get anywhere. I’ll admit it’s sometimes difficult to know exactly what each agent is looking for.
Manuscript Wish List helps but is often out of date.
An agent’s website or social media feed is usually more current.
You might be writing something that doesn’t fit the market at all. Of course, you can be unique (trust me, I’ve published some weird stuff) but if the main character of your YA novel is thirty years old or your thriller is 150K words long, you’re not even close enough to the market to break in.
Go to a bookstore, find the place on the shelf where your novel would sit, and read a ton of novels on that same shelf to get a feel for what the market can allow. (You don’t need to emulate those books; you just need to understand the conventions.)
Your query letter itself
Your grammar is bad. Grammar mistakes have a way of being invisible. In fact, sometimes I’ll critique a manuscript for someone and point out an error only to see the error make it through to the next draft. And I would say that well over half the manuscripts I critique have enough grammar errors to give an agent pause. Grammar mistakes can make an agent worry that a writer isn’t professional enough to publish, and pervasively bad grammar can make an agent worry that a writer isn’t skilled enough to tell a good story.
Sometimes you just need a friend to proofread, but honestly, you can’t be a good writer if you’re really bad at grammar.
I recommend reading Painless Grammar, which covers all the basics a writer needs to master. I promise grammar is easier to improve on than you think, and more important for conveying your ideas than you might guess.
You didn’t follow the standard structure for a query letter. A query letter is supposed to introduce the main character, present his problem, and reveal the stakes of the story.
If you need a template to follow, check out this post. Other online templates also work—there’s no one template that you must follow. You just need to get close enough to the general standard.
Your query reads well and has good structure but it’s not enticing. Most query letters I critique are too vague on details, and the stakes aren’t spelled out clearly. Some are very flat, without any voice or style. Remember that the goal of your query letter is to get an agent to read your sample pages, which means your query’s story description needs to build to an intriguing climax.
You might either study successful query letters writers have posted online or else pay for a critique.
If you can find a message board or group that does mutual critiques for free, those can help as well.
Your premise seems too familiar. If your query letter makes your rom com sound like every other rom com, or your mystery like every other mystery, either your query letter isn’t going into enough specifics or the premise of your novel needs a tweak.
Check out my post on adding an ironic twist to your novel’s hook.
Your story is too much like one the agent already represents. You’re probably querying agents who represent novels similar to yours—which is a great idea, because these agents are obviously interested in the kind of thing you’re writing. But an agent has to make sure she isn’t putting her clients into competition with one another. She can’t send two romantasy novels about dragon-riders to editors. That doesn’t mean an agent won’t take on more than one romantasy novel at a time, though, so don’t despair. Yours just needs to be different enough not to compete directly with an existing client’s work.
Keep querying other agents.
If you sent SAMPLE PAGES along with your query letter and received a rejection (or if you didn’t get any response), the problem might be one listed above or the problem might be…
Your sentence-level writing
Your grammar is bad. See note above.
Your style is bad. Your sentences might be technically correct, but if they lack style, your story won’t be interesting to read.
The best way to develop good style is to read a lot, and to write a lot. But I also very much recommend Self-Editing For Fiction Writers.
Your story’s appeal
Your sample pages don’t introduce a character we’re eager to follow. The most important thing the beginning of a story can do, other than to establish your premise, is to make your main character sympathetic and compelling. It wasn’t until I spent a ton of time working on this skill that I finally got an agent and a publishing deal.
What helped me most improve in this area was writing advice from Matt Bird; check out his books on writing here.
Your first scene isn’t enticing. If you have a great introduction to a main character, you probably don’t need much else, but making sure your first scene is well-crafted can help. Your first chapter should be almost a story in itself, with a captivating build toward a reversal.
Check out this post if you’re interested in crafting a reversal in your first chapter.
Your premise isn’t clear. If your main character and your opening scene feel like every other character and plot, your book will seem like a hard sell. The same is true if your opening pages are just plain confusing.
You might need a good critique to improve on this issue.
You can also check out this post on how to use a one-sentence pitch to write your novel.
If an agent requested your FULL MANUSCRIPT and then sent you a FORM REJECTION, the problem might be…
The consistency of your writing
Writers often work very hard to improve their query letter and sample pages but they don’t put as much work into the rest of the manuscript. I totally understand this. That first hurdle is so difficult to get over that it just makes sense to rework the query and sample pages multiple times.
Now is probably the time to put your full manuscript through the same number of revisions.
Your online persona
You’re abrasive or otherwise off-putting online. Not every agent is willing to work with someone who’s difficult.
If it’s important for you to be outspoken to the point of offense, you’ll need to find the rare agent who supports that.
Otherwise, start viewing your public posts through the eyes of a business partner, and delete anything that makes you seem unprofessional or unpleasant.
You have strong political differences with the agents you’re querying. I’m sure some agents really don’t care about your politics. But many (most?) agents are quite left-leaning, and some don’t want to work with writers who are very right-leaning (I’ve seen some agents say as much on Twitter).
If you’re public with your right-wing politics, you might have to be selective with who you query.
If an agent requested your FULL MANUSCRIPT and then DIDN’T RESPOND, the problem might be one listed above or the problem might be…
The agent is overworked
She’s so busy working for her own clients that she doesn’t have time or energy to review your manuscript after all.
You can send a status check after a few months, but if that doesn’t go anywhere, it probably means this agent’s list is full and she won’t have time for you as a new client.
Keep querying other agents.
The agent is playing the game
Some agents won’t bother to read your manuscript until you let them know that you have an offer from another agent. At that point, they’ll feel there might be merit to your work and they’ll go ahead and read it. Of course, if every agent plays this game, you’ll never get an offer. But I don’t think that’s a likely scenario. (Resist the urge to lie and say you have an offer from another agent if you don’t actually have an offer.)
Keep querying other agents.
If an agent requested your FULL MANUSCRIPT and then sent you a PERSONALIZED REJECTION, the problem might be…
You’re querying the wrong agent
It’s possible your manuscript is great as is, and that it has the potential to garner interest from publishers. But agents all have different tastes, and they won’t all connect with your work, especially if it’s unique. I got a huge variety of responses from agents on the manuscript that went on to be my first published novel (Where Futures End). Most of them said the writing was great (one said the manuscript had “glimmers of absolute brilliance”—and yet still rejected it). Most also said I should make significant changes, or that the novel just wouldn’t work for the market. The agent I signed with recommended I rewrite the first forty pages or so, and I found myself agreeing with her. We went on to get a deal from Penguin.
Keep querying other agents.
Your story doesn’t fit the current market
Most writers think this is the only situation that applies to them. They believe they’ve written a work of genius, and that the only reason they can’t publish it is that their novel is far too different from other books to sell well. A few of these writers are correct!
Alas, all they can do is either approach small presses or write another book and see if that one happens to fit into the market.
Keep being weird, though. Sometimes, the brilliantly unique ones get through.
How To Contact Me If You Need A Critique
If you need a critique of your query letter or manuscript pages, I’m temporarily open for paid critiques. I critique fiction in all genres and age categories. Authors I’ve critiqued for include Emily Henry, Stacey Lee, Traci Chee, Randy Ribay, and Kelly Loy Gilbert. I’ve offered paid critiques and taught fiction writing classes for several years and I truly enjoy it! My goal is always to give you the kind of practical, optimistic feedback that makes you excited to revise. Head over to my website for more info.
Either way, I hope you’ve found this list helpful. Keep inching forward, and I’ll see your work on shelves soon!
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This was a great read and very informative. When I'm done with my draft I will contact you about your query letter review services. Thanks for the information.
This is so informative. I’m writing (and planning to publish) a novella in Romanian, and here we have a simpler system. We send the full manuscripts directly to presses, and if we hear back, it’s usually a “yes”. Still, the process of getting our work to presses is very similar to pitching to agents in English-speaking markets. I hope to someday publish a novel in English, and it seems that publishing a few books in my native tongue would not only be slightly easier, but improve my chances of finding an agent since I’ll already know how to recognize a good manuscript. Thanks a lot for this awesome post!