Here is a rejection letter, from an agent that handles women's fiction, that I did not retype. I deliberately did cut and paste to preserve the quality as best I could. The quotation marks are my own.
"After having a chance to read this, however, I am afraid I am going to pass on this project. While there were certainly elements of the story that were interesting, and, I just didn't feel the story was right for what I am looking for. The end result is that it just didn't appeal to me as much as I had hoped."
I am, of course, bitter and dissappointed. Harlequin erotic novels are a biggie for the particular agency that sent this to me, and my sweet little stories don't cut it. My point is, though, that EVERYWHERE you read about how perfect and concise your query letter MUST be or it won't get a second glance. And truly, I SO much want to know what the and. . . was going to be. It sounded like he was on the verge of saying one more positive thing before he shot me down. But all I get was "and". . . So, let's let the judges pass judgement on themselves here. I almost want to include this dude's name in my tags, but ain't gonna happen.
Aww, that sucks. At least he didn't say "unfortunately."
ReplyDeleteIs there a worse word in the English language?
You know what "unfortunately" is?
It's a sigh of relief for the person saying it. Been in a retail store where the clerk says, "Unfortunately, we don't carry left-handed spoons"? They say it with pleasure. Because they're dismissing you. Done. Bye bye now. It means "Fortunately for me, this concludes our interaction."