Your Publishing Journey After Rejection
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Each writer’s publishing journey is unique. There is no experience you’ll find shared on Twitter or TikTok that will exactly match what you’ll go through on your road to getting a book (or multiple books) out there.
Specifically, one of our Good Story Learning members wants to know what to do when an agent likes their work but passes on it. A standard book rejection letter gives no real insight into why the agent didn't want to take a project on, so what comes next? Is it time to look for another agent, or to rewrite the material and try again? Should the writer even keep the manuscript if they now doubt whether it's marketable? Each publishing journey is going to be as individual as each writer, so it can be hard to know what to do.
Your Publishing Journey After Rejection
Should you take a chance and send a different manuscript to an agent that has already passed on your work, hoping another project will better suit their tastes ? And, if you do manage to get another project accepted, will an agent take a second look at something they’ve already passed on? There are so many variables involved here. If an agent who has passed on your work is part of a larger agency that you really admire, should you query a different agent within the same company, in the hopes that they might be more enthusiastic?
Rejection can be truly disheartening, exasperating, and painful. It also leaves the writer with no clear direction on next steps for their publishing journey. Even if the writer attempts to approach the agent for more detailed feedback, this is usually a bad call. Agents don’t like to give further rejection letter responses, unless they’ve taken the time to provide a revise and resubmit letter. But having zero information about where your project went wrong might leave you unable to move on after rejection because you have no idea what to do.
What happens when an agent fails to connect with the manuscript? Do you try submitting to other agents, or do you give up on the project and deem it unsellable? This depends. Should you give up and put your time and energy into another project? Will that streamline your publishing journey?
Make sure you have done a thorough submission round before making a decision. Send your work to multiple agents and get a feel for their general opinion. If you’ve gotten some promising-sounding rejections, you should try working on the manuscript again. A revision or two might not be a bad idea.
If you have nothing but form rejections to show for your hard work, you might want to shelve the project—at least temporarily. (You could also get feedback from multiple sources before you decide, including beta readers, a critique group, or paid book editors.) Basically, there is no need to be discouraged by a single person's opinion—there are so many perspectives out there, and it would be foolish to make a drastic decision based off of one rejection. But if your publishing journey has included nothing but rejection—that's telling you something, too. (How many rejections is too many?)
Continuing Your Publishing Journey
As for resubmitting to a literary agent after a rejection (or another agent or editor at the same agency or house) with a new manuscript … you can try, but only after some time goes by and you really hone your craft. Agents and publishers really do get annoyed hearing new projects from writers they’ve recently rejected, especially if they rejected them because of basic writing issues. Those gatekeepers are going to think the new writing has the same issues, too, since so little time has passed.
Agents almost never say, “Hey, do you have any challenging-to-sell drawer novels I can represent?” When it comes to approaching a literary agent, the best approach is always to send your top-notch work. Or new work, rather than old work you’ve dusted off. Stick to sending just your very best pieces, and only if they’re ready. (This is especially relevant to authors of picture books, who usually have multiple manuscripts that they might want to submit at once.)
If an agent does reconsider your work and extend an offer of representation for a new project, they’ll consider your prior work—but your expectations should be low. On your publishing journey, your new work will be much more appealing than old work that you dust off. More often than not, writers significantly improve with time. You might feel nostalgic for things you wrote earlier in your publishing journey, but those projects might not be viable.
Put your all into forging ahead on your publishing journey. As long as you keep moving forward, there's always the potential for progress and, eventually, success. Always remember that patience is your most valuable asset when you’re navigating writing, revision, rejection, your book query letter, and submission on your publishing journey.
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