Story Complex Notes

Form Letter(s) 5of5

Rejection Response: 

There are only a few times in which to respond to a rejection. 

1. They gave you feedback

2. They read your manuscript as a referral 

3. You want to submit to them again in the future.

Here are the form letters for each: 

1. 

Dear Ms. Agent: 

Thank you for the constructive advice in your email/letter. You make a great point about X (do not talk about the points you don’t agree with - if you don’t agree with any of them, why do you still want this agent?) and I plan on revising the manuscript with those notes in mind. While I believe that such a revision would take me some time, I’d love to send you the revised manuscript. Please let me know if you’d be willing to take a look - 

Best,

Author Awesome

2. 

Dear Ms. Agent: 

Thank you for taking the time to review my manuscript. So-and-so-that-recommended-me speaks so highly of you, that it’s unfortunate that this manuscript wasn’t a good fit. I’ll keep you in mind for future projects - if you have a moment, I’d love to interview you for my writing blog. I’d ask you three questions via email and it shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to respond. A lot of my readers are also writers in the genre you represent and we’d love to have more insight into what you are looking for right now.

Let me know if I can forward those three questions!

Best,

Author of Great Networking

(Please note, this only works if you actually have a blog with writers in your audience, but the point is… turn it around, make it about a connection giving THEM what they need. You can also learn more about them, their needs, their interests - and figure out ahead of time if any of your other manuscripts would be a good fit). 

3. 

Dear Ms. Agent, 

Thank you again for reviewing The Greatest Book in History. I’m sorry that it wasn’t a good fit, but if I decide to pursue another project I’ll query you again. 

Best,

G.R.T. Author

Form Letter 4of5

The “I’m withdrawing this because you’ve had it so long that I’m going to have a breakdown if I don’t hear something right away.” 

Dear Ms. Agent, 

Thank you for requesting my manuscript The Greatest Novel in The World on date/date/date. I’ve received wonderful feedback that I feel would benefit the story - and so I’m withdrawing my manuscript from your agency at this time. Would you consider reading the revised manuscript at a future date?

Thank you again for your consideration. 

Best,

Author of Greatest Novel Ever, EVER!

Form Letter 3of5

To use when you are withdrawing a manuscript because you’ve accepted another offer: 

Dear Ms. Agent, 

Thank you for requesting my manuscript, The Greatest Book Ever Written by a Human on date/date/date. I received an offer of representation and now need to withdraw my submission with your agency. 

Thank you again for your consideration. 

All the best, 

Author of Greatness

—-

Most likely you’ll receive an email back that says something along the lines of, “Thank you for letting me know. If something changes in the future, I hope you’ll think of us again.” 

Form Letter 2of5

When you have no new information to offer, but cannot wait another second: 

Dear Ms. Agent,

Thank you again for requesting THE GREATEST NOVEL EVER. I’m following up on the status of my submission as per the instructions on your website. Please let me know if you need me to resend the manuscript or if you have any question. 

Yours, 

Author of Greatness

authorofgreatness@gmail.com

Form Letters 1of5

Form Letters for your personal use. Please substitute your own name and pertinent details (smile). 

Received an Offer, Follow-Up Email

Dear Ms. Agent, 

I received an offer of representation for The Greatest Manuscript Ever. I’ve asked for two weeks in which to consider the offer and allow other agencies time to respond. Please let me know if you’d like me to resend my manuscript or if you have any questions. 

Best,

AUTHOR of GREATNESS

authorofgreatness@gmail.com

555.555.5555

5 Tips for ALWAYS GETTING A RESPONSE (without changing your manuscript)

It was between that title and “How to Get a Response For Your Manuscript.”

Before we get started, I want you to know, understand and own the following statement: 

“No response IS a response.” 

I used to get tons of questions from writer-friends who had submitted a manuscript to an agent or editor months even years earlier, to only never receive a response. And they would ask me, Do you think it would be OK to follow up? 

Sometimes a request for information goes unanswered… and then what? 

Here are 5 Tips to ALWAYS GET A RESPONSE (even if it’s a rejection) on Your Submission:

1. Read the submission criteria VERY carefully to see if they respond to queries/submission they are not interested in. 

A lot of times the criteria will say, “If we’re not interested, we won’t be in touch.” (So, then you have a response — because as we’ve previously discussed — in this case, NO response IS a response.)  

2. Keep reading that criteria - look for an average response time. Until that time period passes (and perhaps another 50% of the time more) you shouldn’t bother the agent or editor with a status request.  So if they say their wait time is 10 minutes. Wait 15 before you start following up. If it’s 2 months, wait 3. You get the idea… 

3. ALL of this goes out the window when you receive an offer for representation or acquisition offer from a legit publisher/agency (this does not include self-publishing). When this happens, send a polite letter to the publishers/agencies that have your material letting them know that you received an offer and will make a decision by X date. If they are your first choice (and don’t lie), tell them - and let them know you’d be eager to resend the material (they might not be able to find it, might have lost it, might have planned on rejected it - but are now seeing it with new eyes). If you do not receive a response… Repeat after me: No response IS a response.

4. If you are scratching your head and saying to yourself, “But I only sent it to that ONE agency or Publisher…” then perhaps we should review why multiple submissions are so important to ALWAYS getting a response. Forget that it will help you keep your sanity… submitting it to multiple agents and editors (I suggest submitting to agents first), will allow you to test your pitch skills. Try different variations of your query letter pitch (especially if you are getting fast rejections where they won’t even look at the manuscript… that means there is more wrong with your query letter than there should be).  Get it into the hands of multiple agents/editors - and then work on something else while you wait (in order to keep your sanity). 

5. The most important tip for ALWAYS getting a response is to properly research your agents/editors before you submit Anything. This will help you more than any other one thing you can do (erm… I mean, unless your brother is a world famous director who just bought the film rights to your book AND attached multiple famous actors to it). Start with your projects genre, research who is purchasing that genre/market book through Publishers Marketplace ($20/mo). Then research those particular agents/editors on different website (agentquery.com, editors & preditors, etc). Google their name, if that doesn’t work, google their agency or their name with “response times” after it. Read what type of responses other writers are getting, figure out why they were or were not accepted as clients/authors. Figure out if this is an agent/editor you want to work with - BEFORE you submit to them. Find some of their clients, read their blogs or sites and see if they posted information about their agent or their submission process… LEARN from them!

5 Things Every Serious Writer Needs

1. SELF CONTROL (the program… not just the …well, both, I guess…)

Once you are done reading this post, you might want to go download a snazzy little program called Self Control — this tasty morsel of code allows you to block all the wonderful, time-wasting sites that are keeping you from completing your magnum opus. So, for a set period of time you will not have access to Facebook or Twitter or constantly hit refresh on your email. Think of all you can accomplish!  visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/

2. RSS FEED of ALLTOP.com/Publishing

Professional writers need to keep up to date with professional news, especially as publishing continues to evolve and contacts/editors change roles, companies or even leave the industry all together. AllTop is the brainchild of Guy Kawasaki (we’re big, big fans), it takes headlines from great blogs and puts them all in one spot for you to read.

3.  Writers Digest Membership

Recently Writers Digest began exploring digital content - each week they send out emails with introductory content to their ‘writing school’ that you can read for a pretty low investment. These are mostly how-to and creative-based writing guides, so they will compliment your Alltop reading (and the subscription is tax deductible if you are claiming your writing as a business). 

4. A Sketchbook

A notebook is fine, but I prefer the no-lines of the sketchbook. This is to jot down all those amazing ideas that you will think of WHILE you are working on your current project. Hopefully the sketchbook will let you write down ideas without distracting you too much from your work in progress… because the number one excuse for not finishing your manuscript is: “I just have SO many great ideas I can’t settle on just one!” (Ok, that’s not the number one excuse… I think that’s “I don’t have enough time.”)

5. A Timer

Like the kind you use in the kitchen. It only needs to go to 15 minutes. Set it three times a day. Every time it goes off, write as quickly as you can (if you are a faster typer - type, if you are a faster writer - write), as much as you can, without reviewing or editing. Just write.  If you can’t seem to get unblocked on your manuscript, try an emotional scene from later in the book or write an earlier scene from another character’s point of view. Anything to get the pen (fingers) moving.