Reading literary agent Janet Reid’s interesting post on the reasons she rejected manuscripts last year gave me the inspiration to tally up my own thanks-but-no-thanks to see what came across my desk during 2009. We moved offices last February and I’ve never relocated my copies of reject letters from January and February ‘09, but from March through December I passed on 133 manuscripts. Here were the reasons why:
Not what Del Rey is looking for (meaning we had enough on our list already of whatever subgenre was on offer): 22
A good manuscript but not right for our list (included a couple of nonfiction SF-related titles more suitable for a small press, the odd children’s book, etc.) 14
Not a genre that’s doing well right now (horror, mostly; some foreign novels being offered for translation, anthologies whose concepts weren’t strong enough) 18
Simply not good enough (a combination of mediocre writing and/or storytelling) 43
Contains major plot flaws (the story was too predictable, or the author made a choice I didn’t agree with which affected the entire manuscript) 5
Pretty good, but show me the author’s next effort 5
Main characters not strong or likeable enough 3
Needs too much editorial work (a manuscript has to be 95% of the way to book-ready for me to be willing to take it on) 7
Falls between genres (these were some of the most frustrating ones I had to reject; several were quite beautifully written but would be hard to promote in such a tough marketplace) 14
Writing quite good, but this isn’t the story to launch an author with (applied to first-novel manuscripts) 2
And the tally of what did I end up buying?
- Bid but didn’t win in auction (dang!!!) 1
- Bought at auction 2
Keep in mind that most of what I buy is new work from my current Del Rey authors, or books that I commission from scratch. Del Rey editors in total bought quite a few books last year.
I’ll expand on some of this next week. Any questions, post away.
Betsy, thank you! I’m so going to keep this bookmarked to show my students. (And Happy New Year!)
Hi Thanks for doing this. As an unpublished author, even with several completed manuscripts, I’ve always wondered, even after I tripled check a website, why a manuscript was rejected. I don’t submit to Del Rey as they require the writer to be agented.
Why do you think horror is not doing well right now? People seem fascinated with vampires and werewolves and ghosts. I’m not a horror writer at all, I’m just wondering. It seems editors have been saying this about horror for years, but then some of the best selling writers of all time have been horror writers. So what gives? Is this a marketing failure? Is this one of those things where editors and agents have kind of decided isn’t in fashion? Or is really that the public isn’t buying it?
Instructive and alarming. How many of those accepted were first time writers? Did you also need to see their next effort? (Yikes).
And mostly, if the anti-hero is dark and not especially likable, is the manuscript doomed?
What role, dear Betsy, does the authors platform or lack thereof play in your decision?
Claudia -
I don’t think all those vampires and werewolves you’re seeing qualify as horror. They’re romance, urban fantasy and young adult. They’re not scary in any way shape or form, nor are they intended to be. The characters just happen to be from different species.
Claudia -
I don’t think all those vampires and werewolves you’re seeing qualify as horror. They’re romance, urban fantasy and young adult. They’re not scary in any way shape or form, nor are they intended to be. The characters just happen to be from different species.
Betsy, have you posted anywhere about why you accept novels?
Yeah, you could be right about these particular vampires not being very scary. But they started out that way…Interview with the Vampire was kind of scary. Creepy anyhow. But in any case I would still like to see some discussion as to why horror isn’t considered marketable. I have no personal stake in this, but I find it curious.
At a guess, Claudia, it might be that with the Second Great Depression, unemployment, homelessness, hopeless bills, war in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism, real life is frightening enough for most people. I think that horror might be more popular in times when things are going well and people can be frightened safely. When things are bad, you don’t need horror–you need hope.
“Falls between genres”. Thanks, Betsy. That’s the first time I’ve seen this stated as fact (instead of my own opinion) and it reinforces my decision to try to get my book out myself in the current market. Highly enlightening post.
So How perfect does a manuscript have to be? I’m working on my own dark fantasy right now and think it is fairly good. What exactly are you accepting? Urban fantasy? Epic or High Fantasy?
I’m curious, because this is my first serious attempt at a book and want to see my dream fulfilled. So what tips can give a first time novelist.
Thanks and I found your list enlightening. I’m glad to know some of the reasons now. So I’ll save my money and get a professional editor before I submit.
I’m interested in your comment on translated novels as it is not clear to me what you mean. Was the problem that the translated novels you received were all in genres that are not doing well, or are you saying that “translated novels” is a genre that doesn’t sell well?
Oh yeah, Betsy, meant to say thanks for the link to Janet’s blog. Les Edgerton says she’s a good agent and she has a nice blog too. I’m friends with Les on facebook.
Great to hear from you Nalo. Hope you have a successful publishing year of your own.
Rhyanna, the reason Del Rey doesn’t accept unagented manuscripts is that it would take us so long to respond. All editors use a sort of triage system to respond to what’s on their desks at any given day: big-name agents get first attention, due to their years in the business and their strong client lists; medium-name agents next; then the agents we rarely receive good submissions from; last must come manuscripts that have arrived via business colleagues, friends, or in other odd ways. As you can see from the number of manuscripts I dealt with last year–not counting those which I assessed as a second reader for one of my colleagues–if we accepted unagented material I would be utterly swamped. I plan to write an entry about how an editor spends his/her time on the job, to illustrate this situation more fully. I encourage you to seek an agent; they can help your career in so many ways.
Rita, I can think of at least three first-time writers Del Rey bought last year, and there may have been another one or two. We actually love to find new names. A first-timer is all shiny bright and untarnished, with none of the nicks and scratches that can come along with actually going on sale (such as negative reviews or excessive returns for whatever reason). And when a new author succeeds, of course we share in the excitement of having introduced a new name to the field. In the above cases, two manuscripts were the authors’ first submissions, and the other we contributed ideas and guidance to as the author was writing. I’ll answer your other questions in separate posts.
Claudia, the answer to your question lies partly in the definition of “horror.” As another commenter said, the current excitement about vampires, demons, angels, ancient gods reappearing, shapeshifters, were-hamsters and everything else I’ve seen lately involves stories set in contemporary times and (mostly) urban settings, with quite often a romantic (or at least a sexual-tension) angle to them, making these novels of special interest to female readers. The “horror” manuscripts I passed on were of the type that used to flood the bookshelves back in the early ’80s and were read almost exclusively by men: splatterpunk, monster stories, psychological horror, for example. I can’t agree that this type of story isn’t selling because editors have decided that we don’t like it. If it sold, we’d be buying it, you can bet. The market seemed to collapse back in the late ’80s and has never recovered. I think a lot of readers have substituted horror films for books, where that type of sheer scariness is so viscerally presented. The rest read everything Stephen King writes, plus a few remaining big-name authors who have transcended the genre-name.
Cheryl, I meant novels originally published in Russian, German, Dutch, French or some other language. It’s often the case that the trend in other countries is away from what U.S. readers are enjoying–for example, we used to see a lot of submissions of Russian science fiction which felt like U.S. and British SF of the ’50s and ’60s, too old-fashioned for our current readers. Various publishers, including Del Rey, have experimented with bringing out translated novels, and a very few have seen some success, but it would have to be something pretty special for us to take it on.
This is a great idea for another full-length post! Thanks! (I think I’ll do this next week.)
Wow! Thanks for an interesting and informative post, but as an unpublished writer still awaiting answers from agents on fulls and partials, this was like a kick in the gut reminding me of how difficult it is to get published. “Beautifully written but hard to promote” was the scariest followed by not fitting neatly into a genre.
Hi Betsy,
We met last year at the Jambalaya conference in Houma, LA (I won the one-on-one session with you). Just wanted to pass on I’ve signed with an agent and am excited about what’s ahead!
Thanks again,
Caroline
Staggeringly daunting stats. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this Betsy!! Great to see your perspective. It really helps to demystify the acquisition/rejection process.
Cheers!
David
Wow. 136 agented submissions and only 3 offers? That’s startling!
Once upon a time, I was:
Pretty good, but show me the author’s next effort
That was three years ago. Since then I’ve completed another book, one I am currently rewriting and soon to be querying agents with. Without Betsy’s thoughts, I would probably still be working on that first book — a book, I have since come to realize, should be relegated to a learning book and nothing more.
Thanks for this post, Betsy. It brings back memories. Ha!
I’m not a horror writer, either, but I do think the genre deserves more attention than it has been getting lately.
release (it was also one of the first books I remember ever being offered for “presale” in a bookstore), yet in my opinion, fell far short on the reader’s satisfaction meter.
I believe you are right about the horror genre’s bottom falling out in the late 80s. I also think I can pinpoint it with a single book – which was long awaited and highly hyped before its
I do think with Stephen King back in his winning “game” (his last two books were exceptional), that Horror will find a popular niche once again – other publishers should start looking at the genre more seriously. The 80s was the decade of the horror film, and that didn’t negatively affect horror book sales – in fact, movies probably helped them. I didn’t read “The Shining” until well after I saw the film, and the book still scares me more than the movie ever could.
I’m curious about the category “writing good, but this isn’t the story to launch an author with.”
Can you say more about that one?
I agree! YA supernatural/horror is HOT right now. So is most horror novels, TV shows like Vampire Diaries, SUPERNATURAL, etc.
It seems to me that “horror” is the genre for 2010!
Betsy, I think a lot of aspiring writers would benefit from more explanation on the category “not the right story to launch an author with.” My poor agent had to spend almost a year drilling this concept into my head; it’s something that I definitely think needs to be understood better.
Why did you suspect those two first novel attempts weren’t the best material to launch an author? What about them made you toss them aside?
I’m a huge fan of King and classic Koontz and still get creeped out by some of Poe’s short stories–I think horror has a bum rap in a lot of ways. But I didn’t think most of King was horror–it was dark supernatural suspense. SUPERNATURAL, a tv series on the WB, is one of the few that has not lost viewers over 5 years. It gained the first two years and has been holding steady–which means it has a loyal following. It’s very dark, classic good v evil battle with some original twists. I think horror works if 1) it’s not classified as horror (i.e. suspense or paranormal) and 2) it has a hopeful ending. Newbie, I agree with you about King’s last couple books. I’m in the middle of UNDER THE DOME and am thrilled with it.
A.S. Browning, I’d be interested in what you learned over that year of your agent’s drilling, if you feel like sharing.
Harry (and Bane), keep in mind that I’m only one editor here at Del Rey; we have several others actively acquiring. A lot of our list is made of repeat authors, it’s true, but we’re always seeking new talent. On the other hand, it’s good for potential authors to realize that there are a lot of others flexing their fledgling writing wings out there….
To followup on something, Betsy, are these numbers different from, say, 2007, before the economic flop?
Obviously I wouldn’t expect you to go through your files writing up a new tally, but I am curious what your general impression is.
Asakiyume–good question. This comes up rarely (only twice last year), but it’s a specific case. When I see flashes of brilliance in a manuscript–such as in how the author handles relationships, or an especially strong ability to plot, for example–I want to let the author know that his or her strong point is one that can be ported into another type of story, even if the submission I’m seeing is lackluster in some other way, such as the book being a too-traditional quest fantasy. If an author has that much talent, it needs to be nurtured, not blown on a first novel that might be publishable but which probably wouldn’t succeed as well as a different story that works well on as many levels as possible.
Thank you, Betsy! That’s great to know.
Asakiyume — Most of the specifics are very individual to my own work, but to generalize: The book needs to be highly commercial (not like everything else you see on the shelves — something that *could* be on the shelves but is truly unique in some key way), needs to play to your strengths as well as the needs of the market, and also needs to set a template for the future. In my case, I had a strong book that was wholly unlike most of what I wanted to write going forward, and it took a long time for me to understand that this was the best story to start out with. And I was very lucky to have an agent patient enough to work with me, thinking my career in the long term, instead of simply trying to sell the first project with no eye to the future.
Hi Steven–Yep, it’s hard for a professional editor to admit that sometimes self-publication is a viable route, but honestly I think a lot of people *would* enjoy several of the manuscripts I had to pass on this year. And some of my favorite books fall into the “between genres” category and had a hard time finding publication in years past, the most startling example being _A Confederacy of Dunces_ by John Kennedy Toole, which was turned down by about two dozen publishers before the author committed suicide at age 32 (A ROUTE I DO NOT WANT TO RECOMMEND TO ANYONE!!!)–and then went on to win the Pulitzer Prize after Toole’s mother persisted until the manuscript was published. Anyway, with the self-publishing tools available today, this is a legitimate route if an author can devote the self-promotion required along with it. And if the book succeeds, a publisher may come calling, and then you’ve got’em by the delicate parts! The story of how _The Celestine Prophecy_ came to be published (and then sold gazillions of copies) makes for inspirational reading.
A.S. Browning,
Thanks for your comments! Yes, I’ve heard that about it not being a good idea to start out with a novel that’s quite different from the other stuff you’re likely to be writing (or have already written).
Just to be clear, asakiyume — I *thought* the stuff I planned to do was very similar. A thriller is a thriller, right? Not so much. My agent made me focus in a lot harder on subgenres, and on which one I thought I could work in best.
Hello, Ms. Mitchell! I appreciate the tips and am passing them along to the writers’ group I’m in (and telling them they should get you for the next conference.)
You may or may not remember me, but my novel DULCINEA: or WIZARDRY A-FLUTE was the first of three runners-up in your 1996 Warner Aspect First Fantasy Novel Contest (I lost to your first commenter–hi, Nalo). Your kind comment at the bottom of my “congratulations” letter said that you liked my story and asked if I had tried YA publishers . . . which leads me to believe that you might still like the book. Agents told me back then that my book was too long for YA fantasy, but now that Harry Potter has broken the glass barrier there, perhaps it’s no longer a problem. But I can’t find any YA agents who’ll take me on in order to send the book to you again (they tell me instead that if I have a werewolf/vampire/zombie novel, please send that one!) Do you ever take unagented queries? (The ‘net says not and the office says not, but what the heck–I might as well ask, right? The worst you can do is say that I’m banned from your sight for life. *grin*) I completed a sequel to DULCINEA, but it has been sitting on the shelf as well. Anyway, thank you for the encouragement way back when. If I give up in frustration, it will be in spite of the kindness you showed, and that Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden showed, and that Peter Stampfel at DAW showed (years ago, but it sticks).
Betsy, thanks for your time on this post. Did the writers you passed up receive feedback to the effect of your true reason(s), or does everyone get a blanket “not right for me/the market/etc. right now”, regardless of the cold, hard truth?
’80s horror, with the red drippy letters on black covers and lots of serial killers and splattered body parts, was not read exclusively by men. I know it sometimes seemed like it, but honest, I spent two years as president of HWA talking to horror writers and readers, and there were plenty of women who read the stuff.
My mother, for one — and I don’t mean my own splatter novel, as she was dead by the time that was published.
I have a great deal I could say about horror, but this isn’t the place; I just wanted to correct that one misapprehension.
Congrats on getting yourself an agent, Caroline! That’s a major hurdle behind you.
“Writing quite good, but this isn’t the story to launch an author with” — tell us more, please.
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