Positive Rejection?

You can not be an aspiring writer without coming face to face with rejection. It is the nature of the beast. Most rejections tend to be the generic, mass-market “no thank-you” that are sent as a matter of form. However, once in a while, an agent will take the time to respond personally to your query, sample chapters, or full manuscript.

Here are some examples (and these only touch the surface):

• The agent enjoyed your story but they are not taking on any new clients.
• This particular work did not appeal to the agent but they would be very interested in looking at any of your future work.
• The story is well told but unfortunately the market is glutted at the moment with this genre (fill in the blank as to whatever the current trend is).
• This is a great concept, well written but the agent has problems with x,y and z of your book.

All of these are positive rejections which you can use as a barometer for moving yourself closer to your goal: publication. The writing is complemented and unfortunately, in some of the cases, through forces beyond the writer’s circumstances, their work cannot be agented.

With your next work, I would advise approaching the agent who said she would be interested in reading any future work and in your query, I would gently remind her of such. As for the last instance, sometimes a rejection can be an invitation to resubmit.

If you receive a rejection letter and the agent states a lot of positive but then lists the reasons why she will not take you on (i.e. the middle sags, the character is not sympathetic enough, the pace is too slow), by all means, I would put your heart and soul into making your manuscript better based on the agent’s suggestions, then re-query, stating that you had taken the agent’s suggestions on board and would she mind taking a look at it again.

The worst that can happen is that you will still get rejected or you might land yourself agent. It also shows the agent two things: first, that you are serious about your career as a writer and that you are open to constructive criticism in order to make the work the best that it can be.

The very term, “rejection”, has negative connotations. But sometimes, rejection can be a good thing.