You know how parents fawn over their children. In their eyes, their children are the most wonderful and perfect little creatures to roam the earth. They can do no wrong and everyone else should love and adore them. The thing is: no one can love a child as much as their parents. Okay, I'm nobody's mom, but the bond between a mother (or a father) and a child is similar to the bond I have with my characters.
Today I got a personal rejection letter that really surprised me--partially because I sent it several months ago and assumed my work had been passed over. However, that is not what I found most shocking. About five lines into the email, the assistant of the agent I queried explained that they "read my query with interest," but they "weren't drawn in by the pages." Along with my query, the agent requested (in the submission guidelines) the first ten pages of my manuscript. Now, I have rewritten my query several times since I sent it to this agency and looking back on the draft I sent them--it just wasn't great and it certainly wasn't perfect. Here's the thing: I always assumed that I would get rejected because of my query letter alone. I thought this because,
of course, my manuscript pages were a work of genius that no one could possibly dislike. Okay, be honest: half of you readers are nodding your head because you've made the same mistake and the other half of you have a furrowed brow, narrowing eyes, and the words "What an idiot. Who would think that?" rattling around in your head.
