Rejection Analysis

People who know me well, know how analytical I can be. It’s the side of my brain that allows me to be a good nurse, that jumps into action where numbers are concerned, while the creative side of my brain allows me to come up with multiple story ideas. Well, I decided to look at my query history and analyze the responses. Here is what the final analysis was:

I sent out  20 queries resulting in 14 rejections (1 encouraged me to send him my next project) and 6 with no response at all. So, 70 percent of the agents queried gave a definitive no, while 30 percent didn’t respond to my query.

Now, I understand that my query failed to interest 14 agents, but I have a little trouble understanding when there is no response at all. As an art and creative nonfiction editor at Glassworks magazine, I would never consider not responding to a submission. Rejections are what form letters were created for.


Now that I’m finished analyzing my rejections, It may be time to take another look at the finished novel and rewrite my query letter. 

Or… perhaps I’ll move on with another work in progress.