Hi Everyone,
This post is a response to a recent question from Anna:
I received my first rejection after a full-manuscript read yesterday. The rejection was kind, but didn’t provide a huge amount of feedback. I would have been open to working with this agent editorially, but it sounds like either she didn’t want to take the time for that (based on interviews I’ve heard with her, I know she usually does want to do editorial work when taking on writers), or she really thinks other agents might want to keep it closer to how it currently is.
My question is whether I should say I’m open to working with agents editorially when I send the manuscript? My fear is that each one is going to say, “it’s good, but there was this one thing I didn’t like, so you should look elsewhere to find someone who loves every aspect of it.”
Also, do you think it would be okay to follow up with this agent and ask if she would mind providing a little more color about what it was that didn’t work for her? It might end up not being something I want to change, but it would be helpful to have a better idea of what turned her off.
I cannot pretend to have all the answers, but here’s what I can offer from experience.
