Fire the query cannons! and...The best rejection so far...

Deep Breath....click send.

About a week ago, I sent my first query letters to potential literary agents. This is scary. As an author you've spent months, sometimes years, crafting a story with characters you've grown to love, even the bad guys, and now you send it off to try gain approval from those professionals that will be your biggest cheerleader in the land of publishing and promotion of your creation.

Now, for the most part, the waiting begins. Waiting for these busy professionals to read the query letter you wrote, re-wrote, threw away and re-wrote again, the synopsis that you took weeks working on to hopefully encapsulate your story effectively and the hope that the first 10 pages, 20 pages or three chapters captures their heart like it has yours.

So far, of the handful of queries I have sent out, I have only received two responses. Both said no. The first one was simple, professional and to the point; not the kind of story he could get behind.

Today, I received my second rejection and never has a rejection made me feel so good.

See Below:

Hi James,

Thanks for thinking of me and sharing your work with me. You certainly got my attention — I was a high school freshman in 1984 and our school mascot was the Warrior. Wow! While I appreciate the adventure and the Cold War setting, I didn’t connect with the story enough to take it on. I think that’s my fault — I didn’t play sports in high school (I only got into endurance sports as an adult) so a lot of the ‘being part of the team’ is lost on me. I think it’s important to have an agent who viscerally connects with your story so he/she can offer feedback and really go to the mat (there’s a sports analogy!) for the manuscript when pitching editors. I’m sorry I’m not the one for this, but I definitely think this is marketable and I don’t want to be a hinderance to you getting it placed. Thanks for giving me a shot at it.

Best,

Kevin

I appreciate the candor and the encouraging words that this agent delivered in his no. True professionalism at work.

Thanks.