Written by Sian Ellis-Martin
Rejections are a big part of publishing: authors get rejected by agents, manuscripts get rejected by editors, books get rejected by readers, and often we’re not given a reason why.
At Blake Friedmann, we respond to every submission we receive but we aren’t always able to give individual feedback. We receive hundreds of submissions a week and simply don’t have the capacity to do so. It’s easy to assume that your writing is bad if an agent passes on your manuscript, but it’s often not as black and white as that.
There are lots of reasons why we might pass on a manuscript. Here are some of the main reasons I’ve passed on manuscripts recently:
Wrong genre
The quickest passes for me are the ones that are simply not in genres I represent. I’m often sent fantasy and sci-fi novels, or scripts and poetry, and these are areas I don’t work in. Not every agent represents every genre, so if you’re submitting to agents, make sure you check agency websites to find out which genres the agents are looking for. You can see more about the Blake Friedmann team here: www.blakefriedmann.co.uk/team
Pitch is too vague
The first part of your submission we look at is the cover letter, so you’ve got to make sure that your pitch is super strong to make us want to read your chapters. If your pitch is quite vague (e.g. John meets Sarah and they fall in love and live happily ever after) and doesn’t tell us what’s unique about your work, then we might not feel inclined to read the chapters you’ve submitted.
The opening takes too long
Sometimes people feel that they need to spend a long time setting the scene and introducing the characters at the start of a book. We definitely want to get a sense of the world you’re building, but pages of long description don’t always make for the most exciting reading. Personally, I like a book to start as late as possible i.e. as close to the main action/storyline/narrative thread as possible so that I can get straight into things. Those details about setting and character can be woven into the story as it unfolds.
The proposal is not detailed enough
In non-fiction, we ask for a proposal outlining certain things about your book, alongside some opening chapters. Make sure you include that detail – the total word count for a proposal is often around 10,000 words including a synopsis, a chapter plan for the entire work, two sample chapters and some information on where your book might sit in the market (and how it stands out from what’s already out there).
We don’t connect with the voice
This one’s a tricky one as voice is very subjective. Sometimes a book can be well-written and do everything we say we want it to, but there’s just something that we’re not connecting to. Quite often, that’s the narrative voice. As this is so subjective, there’s a big chance that someone else might connect to the voice better than we do.
Place in the market/target audience
Offering representation to an author is about more than whether we enjoyed the story or thought it was well-written. We also must have a commercial vision for the novel. Obviously, we don’t want to have an exact copy of another book, but we want to be able to imagine where a book sits in the market i.e. some authors and titles it might sit alongside on the shelf. This is why using comparison titles and mentioning who your story is aimed at in your cover letter is very helpful.
Lots of people say ‘my book isn’t like anyone else’s!’ or ‘every type of person will enjoy my book!’ but these statements are unrealistic, and don’t help us understand what you’re writing. If we can’t think of a way to pitch or market the book, other people in the chain – editor, marketer, bookseller, etc. – may have the same problem.
Not following submission guidelines
I would never reject something just because it doesn’t follow our submission guidelines, but if we don’t have all the material we need to consider your submission, it makes it more difficult for us to make a decision or consider your work as fully as we’d like to.
All this is to say that we understand it can be disheartening to be rejected but there are many reasons – beyond the book simply being bad – why an agent might pass.