Fervor and Fury Goes on the Shelf
Reflections, stats, and what’s next.
Like many writers new to the trenches, my greatest fear when I first started querying was that I would have to shelve my book. Well, here we are.
Character Art of Tavah and Alban by Nikolai Espera @nikespera
As I’m writing this, I’ve come to peace with it—but that peace has not come easily. I know so many of my fellow writers can relate, but this book had me tearing myself apart to leave my soul on the page. Despite everything associated with JKR, I can think of few more apt metaphors than describing this book as my very own horcrux.
And I know this is a subjective industry, that passes aren’t personal, but when querying something that is so intensely personal it’s hard not to take it that way. Countless tears have been shed over this process (my poor husband had to listen to me cry myself to sleep on multiple occasions.) Why does no one want it? Why does no one want me?
But I said I’ve come to peace with it, right? And, I honestly have. I have already “soft-launched” my next book Lady of the Lake and plan on “hard-launching” it at #pitdark later this month. Having this next project on the burner and now nearly ready to go, along with going back to my day job after my maternity leave, has been the distraction I needed to move on.
I love Lady of the Lake. It is an objectively better and more marketable book. I feel like I have really come into my voice in this manuscript and my character is so real and dynamic that I wonder if she isn’t a ghost using me to tell her story (she’d love that idea.) BUT, I don’t know if you forget your first love.
Okay - on to what everyone’s here for: stats. (*edited on 5/6/2024 as I did get some straggle requests)
I started querying in October 2023:
25 Requests
3 Fulls outstanding
101 rejections,
2 R&Rs I’m thinking about
67 of which were forms
plus 12 CNRS
and 19 outstanding queries that are not old enough to CNR but that I do not have much hope for or that have been maybe listed for over two months.
As you can see, I sent out A LOT of queries, and while 23 is a good number of requests, the percentage is not particularly high. I knew it wouldn’t be for everyone going into this though.
One of the more frustrating things about querying this book has been trying to reconcile the fact that agents and their MSWLs are not always the same. …let me explain.
When I started querying I was very selective with the agents I queried. I sent a batch of ten exclusively to agents whose MSWLs read like the blurb on my query letter. Their “I’d like the next…” sections had one, if not all three, of my comp titles. They wanted “lyrical” “atmospheric” “upmarket” fantasy. “literary writing with a commercial plot.” They wanted deconstructed religious trauma, softer MCs, etc.
I got ten form rejections.
So I sent the next ten to agents whose MSWLs were mostly a fit, though not necessarily the line-by-line fit of the previous ones. I also sent four to agents who liked my #pitdark pitch.
I got ten form rejections, was ghosted by a pitch like, but did get three pieces of feedback.
dual timeline not for me
I just signed a book that’s too similar
there’s no market for literary voices in fantasy
I won’t comment on the feedback (yet), but that’s what I got. And I was frustrated. So I sent ten more queries out to agents who repped fantasy but their MSWLs effectively said “Idk, throw me what you have and we’ll see what happens.”
I got seven requests…
Of course, those seven requests ultimately passed. Two form rejected and the others had feedback that I’ll mention in just a bit.
From then on, I really just sent it to any agent who accepted the genre and had nothing “against” the book in their MSWLs (for example, one agent I would love to work with specifically said she doesn’t want to see domestic violence or infidelity. Domestic abuse is a critical component of this narrative).
So, consolidated feedback:
the pacing is too fast
the pacing is too slow
I don’t like multi-POV
I would want more POVs in an epic like this.
I don’t like multi-timeline
I only liked timeline A (one of the R&Rs)
I only liked timeline B (the other R&R)
there is not enough internalisation
there is too much internalisation
I prefer when books launch straight into the action, I don’t like openings that set the scene
The inciting incident happens too quickly and doesn’t give me enough time to care about the characters or the world.
The MCs are too old for the current fantasy market (30s)
I didn’t like that you set us up to like the villain at first
And the most common feedback was some variation of:
The plot is too commercial and the writing too literary, I don’t know how to sell this.
I will say, some of the feedback I got from more than one source and others were one-off. And while I’m shelving this for now, that doesn’t mean forever. I’m so grateful to anyone who provided feedback that I can use for my future revision plan.
But the most common feedback is also the most frustrating. “Literary prose and commercial hooks” is on so many MSWLs. How can it be that there’s no market for it if that’s what everyone claims to want? I have no answer. My guess is that it’s a case of wants not matching what people think they should want. In other cases, I know it’s more at the sales level. It’s not that agents don’t want this, it’s that they’re not sure they can sell it.
And don’t get me wrong - my take away is not that my book is perfect and this is the one thing working against me. I’m not delusional.
I assume a lot of form rejects were down to word count - 135,000. When I revise, I will try to get this down. Most agents who gave feedback did note that the worldbuilding is too heavy, there’s too much backstory up front, and they want to feel closer to the characters. All things I can work on when I take it up again.
In the meantime, I’m mourning but still pressing on.
