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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45218
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45218
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I can't say I cope well with rejection.

That said, I query in small batches, so I can revise my query (and sample pages) as I go, if rejected.

I have books and online resources for how to write query letters (and how to write books), I will revisit them and double-check to see if I have missed anything, made mistakes, left anything out or can think of anyway to revise what I have and make it better. That's harder for first pages, I probably go through thirty edits of my opening scene, or first 30 pages if it is short.

On top of that, I try to keep some detachment. It is one book. I can write another. If I am going to be a professional author, I will have to write one a year. If this one doesn't sell, hopefully I have learned enough writing it to make the next one sell.

I expect rejection letters. I expect it to hurt if my book flops. But in the end, I write because I love to write and if I can't turn it into a business, then so what?

People everywhere have hobbies they don't monetize. My brother in law builds and flies big remote controlled aircraft, he spends thousands of dollars on it every year. He has no intention of ever quitting his job to do it full time. People play penny poker, my wife volunteers at her church and the animal shelter for free, my nephew goes to play pool every week. None of them are doing it with the intent of going pro or getting rich.

I saw Stephen King in a live interview on TV many years ago; the interviewer asked him what advice he had for people that want to write. His response was, "So write!"

But he went on to say, he thinks most people don't want to write, they want **to have written,** they want the money, and being interviewed on TV and talked about in the book review section. But he didn't think that kind of success was possible for people that didn't love writing for its own sake _without_ any promise of reward, because it took years of writing without any other reward in order to get good enough to sell something.

So if you want to be a writer, write for the love of writing. Submit and collect your rejections. They only mean you are not good enough **_yet_**. Read other books _analytically_ to see how they do it, emulate them, read books on writing, try to follow them, and keep writing, and keep submitting, and try to learn from what you have done before. Even if you never sell a thing, at least you entertained yourself doing something you loved doing, just like all those other people with hobbies that make them happy without making them a dime.

That is the mindset I try to adopt. Rejection is bitter medicine. I think of it as medicine. And I remember that isn't the only reason I write; acceptance would be wonderful, but failing to get it does not make my writing a waste of my time. I keep submitting, but put "acceptance" on the back burner in my priorities, and I don't let rejection ruin my fun.

### Response to OP:

Google(formatting a literary query letter), there will be about 30 links on the first page, from many different sources, on how to write a good query letter, and also on the proper format. I know it seems like Googling one thing to get another, but it works.

I suggest reading several, because they are not all the same! Some even conflict. Don't worry about that, it means you have options; different agents like to see different things.

In particular, I recall searching for one that doesn't demand a bio for a first-time writer, basically the answer to **that** question is just leave it out. Don't say anything about your previous writing or lack thereof either way; use the extra line or two for your pitch. Agents know if you **had** experience that might sway them, you would have included it. The same goes for your profession or other real-world expertise: If it is unrelated to your credibility in writing this story, it won't matter to the agent, so replace that "bio" info with something that **might** matter.

And be very attentive to details in your query letter. Agents look for an excuse to reject, any weakness. I've read one that says she has put a query aside for somebody saying they "have written a fiction novel". Likewise other misspellings or grammar errors they don't want peppering a book.

Using more than a page or cheating on the margins; verboten. Don't self-deprecate, don't engage in self-puffery (how great you are). Don't play coy, don't try to bribe (offer a bigger commission; people try it) or coerce or threaten (this opportunity will be gone soon, act now!).

This is business; the meat of the query letter is basically a description of ACT I, without any spoilers. (I refer to the three act structure; 3AS).

That's the tease in a nutshell; in the 3AS, ACT I sets up the MC's normal world, introduces the "inciting event", it grows into a life-disrupting problem and she has to deal with it: That is what the book is about. And you have to figure out how to describe that in about half a page and make it entertaining, because to the agent this pitch **is an example of your writing skill**. Plan for about twenty drafts. It doesn't hurt to put two weeks just into writing your half-page pitch in the query letter.

Original score: 6