Tag Archives: Richard Henshaw Group

the Resubmission

The way I’m saying that in my head is like the sinister title of a psychological thriller…

no but seriously.

I have been doing a lot of work re-imagining/re-inventing/re-creating my novel, and the direction I took with the redraft is largely due to Susannah Taylor’s rejection letter (see here for the whole story).

I saw on a loop today that she’s actively seeking submissions, so I put the question to Valerie/fairygodmother: are my first few chapters ready for a re-query?

She said go for it.

So here go my heart and nerves again. I don’t think there’s another huge overhaul of this book in my future, so this is sort of it.

It’s scary and it’s a feeling like I’m alive and forging ahead.

a really great rejection letter

Susannah Taylor from the Richard Henshaw Group just went right to the top of my desirable agents list.

Her rejection letter left me feeling invigorated and inspired and like I might actually be able to do this. Quite a feat, no? It makes me grateful that I was already so far along the rejection letters road when I got it, so that I could really appreciate it.

I won’t copy it in here, because I’m not quite sure about the copyright issues with that, but just the gist:

she gave a comprehensive critique of the piece and went very specifically into the reasons why she didn’t think she would be able to sell it on the market.

She was very encouraging about the writing itself, said she thought I was a “wonderful writer” and that she would like to see other things from me in the future (when you have a pile on your desk as big as the regular agent, you don’t go saying this unnecessarily).

When I replied to thank her, she replied to my reply, saying that nos are hard and it’s great to know her critique was read the way she intended it.

She has the amazing knack of making it feel like a great favour that I let her read my stuff. Again, considering how busy agents are and how many thousands of manuscripts they read and reply to, this is no mean feat.

And lastly, she represents Elizabeth Hoyt. If you’ve read any EH, this fact speaks for itself. If you haven’t, your life has a big EH hole in it, and you don’t even know it yet.

the rejection book

hey, sorry to be stuck on a kind of depressing subject, but I got another rejection letter yesterday (right after that last post. Honestly!) and it had to be dealt with.

And besides, this post is all about positivity!

See, getting the letter was really quite depressing, so of course I found myself in my favourite bookshop trying to make it all better by buying books, lovely books. And then I thought:

This is going to keep happening over and over throughout my career, and I can’t just fall apart each time! I need some effective way to deal with it.

So I bought myself a notebook and started a Rejection Journal! And it immediately made me feel better. This is what it looks like:

It may sound a bit defeatist, but the whole point is to acknowledge rejection. (And it makes rejection look fun!) (Sort of.)

My feedback for Kristin Nelson Agency. (I printed the email and put it in an envelope, so that it’s really like a letter.)

Feedback for Suzie Townsend of Fine Print Literary Management. (This one was fresher, so there was more to say/rant.)

And these two are still possibilities/disappointments in the making.

I love my rejection book, because it puts each attempt in context, and it makes it feel more professional – like getting rejected is part of a process that I document.