MICHAEL G'FRANCISCO Chicago's-Mystery-Author

FORUM TOPIC: This tutoial pertaining to "Literary Rejection" is based on fiction genre manuscripts. There are three (3) words that need to be defined first:

SUBJECTIVE---adjective: Existing in mind; belonging to the person thinking rather than to the object thought of:

Some say the publishing industry is slowly becoming a woman's world. Maybe? It's hard to conceive that point of view because there are more books published by male authors than their counterparts.

What is a definite fact: women read and purchase more books than men do and a large percentage of printed material that does get published is aimed at the female reader. But, one must keep in mind that men own and operate the seven major publishing houses and their many implants.

Money! Yes, money is what makes the publishing industry respond. Greed if you will, just like any other major corporate empire. Owner, stockholders, booksellers, small presses, bookstores and so on, are the spokes in this wheel of greed. It must be greased with the written word.

Words only don't sell. It's what the words say that sells. So, it becomes a foregone conclusion that if women buy more books than men, write for their pleasure.

But, there is one little kink in the literary armor, and that's the word "subjective". It leaves the author at the mercy of greed. That's until a person reaches their point in life when they think they have enough money. Then, power over another takes front seat in driving their decisions that are bestowed upon others.

Their personal feelings cloud sound judgement and they begin to pick and chose according to their likeness. Which in some cases results in "rejection" of another work.

It must be realized, that everyone can't be a successful and famous author. We all know the the computer made authors out of, well shall we say, those who didn't don't follow the writer's protocol. But, this is not the time to go into that issue.

First, let's go over some of the obvious reasons a writer gets rejected by an agent or editor.

One must re-read and edit their correspondences. You don't impress a person with mistakes. Mistakes can be a big "turn off" to certain people. A single mistake is not the case. It's when it becomes more than a few. So, please, edit your queries before senting them to people who can say, "yea or nay".

2. Not furnishing the proper information to allow the reader of your query to make heads or tails of it.

The body of your query should follow the points that you are trying to convey, such as; the title of your work, the amount of words and pages, a brief paragraph or two describing the story, what market it is intended for, what you can do to assist in promoting your work, your writing credits (if you have any)and a brief biography.

Above all, refrain getting cute with words, or saying you've written the next best seller because your mother or friends think it's great. And remember, they are busy. So, don't give them a chance to toss your letter aside or to write a rejection notice before they've completely read your query. It's best to buy or go the library to get a copy of any book that shows you the proper way to construct a query letter.

Keep your query one or two pages. It's better to be brief, but not to brief. A tight concise query can go a long way toward getting read and considered.

Last, always thank the reader for their time and be sure to include a SASE, if you want an answer.

3. If you have or are given guidelines, then follow them precisely as explained. They have their reasons, if you don't there is a good chance your work will not get read.

FORM LETTERS: these are used in some cases because the agent or editor receives an abundant amount of queries in the mail each day and sometimes because they're just plain lazy.

The form letters vary between; a postcard, a small strip of paper, a half page and a full page with up to three brief paragraphs.

YOUR LETTER: These can be a bit rude. The ones who return your letter with some scribbled words on it reflect the caliber of agent or editor. Some even attach notes written on those little yellow sticky menos.

"Sorry, sounds intriguing, but we're really not looking for more first-mystery novelists. Good luck!"

Thank you for your letter and giving me the opportunity to consider your manuscript. While your book sound intriguing: both intelligent and well-written, I'm afraid I'm just not sufficiently interested to pursue it with you. I'm sorry that I'm forced to be so painfully discriminating, but I'm taking on close to nothing right these days. I only seem to bend when something truly inspires me, and honestly, I find that I may just be tapped out right now.

Certainly, another agent less harried than I may be more enthusiastic, and to that end I wish you all the best in securing other representation.

Thank you for your recent query letter. I regret that we do not feel your particluar manuscript is right for us. As you undoubtedly know, this is a business based on personal taste and opinion; therefore we encourge you to query other agents.

Thank you for your recent query regarding your manuscript. I have read the synopsis included with your letter. Unfortunately, I did not find the premise intriguing enough to capture my interest. Therfore, I am going to pass on this proposal.

Thank you for your recent letter. I regret to say that your work doesn't appear to be the kind of material I am currently looking for.

Opinions vary considerably in the business, and I'm sure that another agent will have a more favorable response.

Thank you for your query regarding your manuscript, but after serious consideration on the part of this office, we must decline your request for representation at this time.

However, we do wish you the best of luck in your endeavor. Perhaps another agency will feel differently.

We receive far too many submissions to comment on rejected material. I sincerely wish we could take the time to write a critique of each manuscript we receive, but we simply cannot. But, we do hope you will feel free to submit to us again.

Now, it's time to entered into our tutorial the "Occam's Razor Theory" of literary rejection, which is: 'All things being equal, the simplest reason that your work has been rejected is usually the correct one."

This can be sour grapes in some cases. Especially, with the publishing business being, and I quote,"subjective".

Then, there is "The Chinese Rejection" which has been a joke among writers for a long time. It deals with being overly polite, such as; It's wonderful, a great novel, well written, but it's too good for us to publish. If we were to publish your work, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of a lower standard. So, therefore, we must regretably decline your manuscript.

Now, isn't that a bunch of crap. But, it does happen. Then, there are some solid reasons for good material to get axed, such as; consider an editor who has two or possibly three manuscripts in front of him with the same or very close subject. He has to choose, maybe your loses out. Unfair, no. It was a matter of his choice.

Another reason is the subject, it might not be the current trend. Its popular time may have past. It's hard to bring a worn out story back to life. Don't ever forget, the publishing industry is a MONEY MAKING business. It's not good business sense to toss new money into a passe' piece of work.

Also, most publishing companies have a committee or board in which all new manuscript must be passed around for each ones opinion to print, hold till later or pass on. Their word is the final say before the manuscript goes to the editing people for possible revisions. And, if you don't already know the old axiom: give a manuscript to ten editors and you will get twelve opinions. It's true. Everyone wants to stick in their two-cents worth.

But, it's time to explore some ways to avoid getting a rejection letter. Let's begin with picking the right agency for representation.

After your have done your selection of at least a dozen agencies that represent authors in your genre, you should look them up on the Preditors and Editors website (it will be listed below) and see what comments they have to say about their business practices.

If small presses are your submission choice, do the same. Some writers feel it is better to get publish first then get an agent. It's a matter of your personal preference.

This is a growing field for new writers. There are companies in the United States that are bigger than small presses, but are medium sized enough to be interested in publishing good material. In tutorials to come, we will go into more detail about small and mid-size presses.

To assist in selecting agencies and publishers the WRITER'S MARKET, which is sort of the writer's bible can be purchased or used at your nearest library. There are also other books on the same subjects. Oh, and you should buy a verision of Thesaurus in dictionary form.

Your story topic is a most important item. It takes almost a year to get a manuscript published after it has been accepted.

When an editor accepts a manuscript he knows how long the process takes and that is part of his decision to accept or reject. So, you must also take that into consideration when selecting a subject.

Target your field of fiction, what's in today could be out next year. This isn't true in every catagory of fiction genres. For instance, certain classes of romance novels have great staying power. Choose your fiction genre carefully.

Remember, check your cover letter carefully, select an agent or publisher that fit your fiction genre, check them out with P&E and be sure your manuscript is completed before sending out any queries.

Oh, by the way, if and agent says they only accept your submission if you don't submit it elsewhere, that's a good sign they want to shop your synopsis around before anyone else does. If you do wait, they got you in a holding box. That's a one way street.

Another trick up an agent's sleeve; when they read a synopsis that they think might sell, they will call a few editors an run the story by them to see if there might be an interest. If not, they sent you a form rejection letter. In other words, you got shop, no buyers, then rejected.

It's best to send out six (6) queries at a time, say every six months. If you get a rejection letter, the first thing you should do the next morning is send out another query. Keep the ball rolling. Be persistent don't dwell on a rejection letter. Just keep thinging positive and moving in the direction of getting published.

Constantly keep trying to improve your writing. Read as many books as you can in your genre. A good trinity habit to have is; perseverance, persisency and writing improvement.

If you get bored waiting for answers, write fiction articles for magazines. But, whatever you do keep writing. A cardinal thought to keep in mind is: ninty-five percent (95%) of famous authors had many rejection letters before becoming famous. Stick to your guns, ahem, I mean pen and write, write and write.