Nobody likes bug bites. They itch, they swell, and sometimes they become infected. These bites affect our physical bodies in ways we easily see and feel. The bitterness bug, on the other hand, burrows under our mental skin. It bites in unobtrusive places where we can’t see the marks, yet they still itch and annoy […]
Rejection Letters – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
We all know rejection letters are UGLY. They hurt. We put our heart and soul into our writing, spend more time than we’d like to remember revising and polishing our manuscript. Finally, we put it in front of agents and editors. Then the responses come. Our baby, rejected…often multiple times. We tend to think […]
Get Fewer Rejection Letters
With the beginning of the year, one of my goals has been to catch up on reading through submissions. As I’ve reviewed queries and submission over the last month, I’ve noticed a few issues that repeatedly come up which virtually always lead to a rejection letter. The following suggestions won’t necessarily lead to a contract, but they […]
What Publishers Want – Part 1
FOLLOW THEIR GUIDELINES One of the quickest ways to receive a rejection is to send a publishing house something they don’t print. Sounds like a no-brainer, but this is one of the top reasons for sending a rejection letter. Publishers don’t hide what type of material they write. It’s usually front and center on their […]