Don't Self Reject!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Literary Agents Jessica and James are offering some of their best #MondayMotivation... don't self-reject! Just send your query. You never know what might work out....
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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds TH-cam channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.
Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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Since interning at BookEnds as an undergrad in the summer of 2015, James has (basically) never left. He's just continuously level-up-ed inside of BookEnds. Now he is the Literary Assistant and Social Media Manager for the team. He’s been a reader since his mom gave him the first A Series of Unfortunate Events book and ordered the sequels regularly through Scholastic book orders.
James is currently growing his own list and is actively seeking submissions in adult literary and upmarket fiction, mystery, thrillers, and suspense. He is also accepting submissions in all sub-genres of Young Adult fiction, and is actively looking for Picture Books that make him laugh.
Connect with BookEnds!
Twitter: bookendslit
Instagram: bookends_literary
Website: www.bookendsliterary.com
Connect with Jessica: bookendsjessica
Connect with James: jmcgowanbks
You two are like Abbit and Costello. The chemistry is perfect and funny.
I'm watching this on a Monday and this is just the kind of motivation I need today. I'm at a hard part of the writing process and this morning I heard that evil voice in my head saying NO ONE will want to publish this or read this anyway. It's great to find this video and imagine that if I keep working hard, there is an agent somewhere who will someday enjoy reading my manuscript. Thanks for the encouragement!
This is a great video. Thanks so much for this.
James and Jessica you two are such awesome people! Your TH-cam shows are so supportive and kind! Thank you for all that you do for the writers you have as clients and to all of the writers that watch your shows and twitter feeds.
Thank you so much for your kind words
Jessica is pumped up today! Lol
Okay - you convinced me James - I'm sending you one - and compliments of the season to you and all at Bookends... keep these fabulous videos coming.
I wish I would have discovered this channel earlier. There’s so much encouraging advice.
Hey guys,
Can you make a video about your favorite first lines in books?
We can add to the list :)
@@BookEndsLiterary
Please please please do it do it
Happy MONDAY!!! 🎵🎶
How did y’all know I was wondering about this very topic! Grazie! 🤓🙏🏼
Hey; just found your youtube channel a couple weeks ago and I am so excited by the concept, since so many common talking points in writing communities are deceptive or confusing. I wonder if you could clarify something in terms of self-rejecting on the basis of research. I've had the luxury of being able to attend several writer's conferences and I keep seeing a confusing trend amongst agents who represent fantasy: their web site, conference bio, and often even MSWL page will say something like "Agent Name is looking for new voices in genre, genre, sci fi/fantasy, genre..." but when you talk to them at conference they say "Yeah, I represent science fiction and fantasy, I love all kinds. Oh, except high fantasy." That (understandably) is frustrating, because there was no way to know that the agent in question doesn't represent that specific subgenre until you talk to them personally, and many authors don't have the ability to go to conferences and ask. I suspect the problem isn't just a fantasy genre problem (I just happen to write that), and I wonder if there's any place I might not be looking for that information. You said not to self-reject on the fact that the agent isn't currently representing a particular type of book, so I want to assume "sci fi/fantasy" means all sci fi and fantasy, but I've heard this after-thought exclusion from 10 or so agents across 4 or 5 agencies in the last several years, so I'm starting to wonder if I might be missing a resource. Thanks for the content, and if you happen to have time to respond to this (blog, video, whatever) then extra thanks.
We do love your TH-cam videos!! Haha I always tell my writer friends to check out Bookends!
Thanks so much :)
I love your videos! They're brilliant! Please, please, please will you do one that talks about querying from over seas? I'm in the UK and there's conflicting advice whether it's okay to query agents in the US. I'm guessing it's probably down to the individual agents and whether your story is a fit for an American audience but it'd be great to hear a general idea on whether it's worth pursuing and what's the best way to go about it. Thank you! 😁
Adding to our list!
Now saw your question... Yeah, what she asked? :)
So needed to hear this today. Thank you.
Get a hundred agent rejections, then maybe self-publish and try agents with a new book.
Thank you. I self-reject a lot. My book is a mystery with speculative elements (nothing on the scale of paranormal mystery). A lot of mystery agents don't accept speculative elements so I'm hesitant to query them. But maybe I'll give it a go!
Try a heap. But sometimes with unique genres like yours, you need to self-publish. And that can make you some good money.
@@ClintLoweTube Thanks for the advice. However, I feel like traditional publishing is much more in-line with that I want for my writing career than self-publishing. Cheers!
General question - What might be the differences in expectation by an agent, and opportunity for a writer, in choosing an agent from the US opposed to, say, the UK?
I have to say, one or two things in your videos have really irritated me. But I keep watching, haha. You both have definitely been more helpful and informative than annoying. So, thank you, sincerely.
And to the subject here: yeah, I self-reject all the time. I'm just so out of step with the current state of literary fiction. I've come to expect the rejections, especially when I read the agent bios (and the editor guidelines for many journals) and they seem to be almost stereotypically "woke."
I hate the term, but I am a "writer of color," and I come from a poor background. When I started subbing around 2010, I really thought I'd be immediately, wholeheartedly embraced, haha.
In fact, back then I was still keeping record of my submissions on actual paper, and I gave myself a half a page of space on the last page of a copybook. I figured I'd already be signed by the time I ran out of room. Needless to say, I filled a few sheets of loose leaf before I got my first acceptance letter. THEN I figured, okay, I'm on my way. The fiction editor loved it, and it was reprinted as that journal's submission to some anthology, etc. I was like, I've arrived! Haha.
Well, I've somehow managed to get seven or eight other things published, but, yeah, I'm still waiting for the day it gets easy.
I'd tell any submitting/querying writer, your self-rejections will often prove correct...but do it anyway. Send out your stuff ANYWAY. Each and every time, you're at least engendering the POSSIBILITY that an editor is really going to cotton to your work. And the more attempts you make...
Currently I'm about halfway done a novel I'm SURE will have trouble finding representation. But what am I going to do? Not write it? Not query it? Like they always say about fear in general: what you do is feel the fear but do it anyway.
There's really no other choice.
I've seen a number of agents I would have loved to query, but they said they were closed to queries. In such cases you have to self-reject, because you have no choice. self-rejection is nothing more than obeying an agent's submission guidelines. Or are you saying submitters can ignore them if they want?
We are not suggesting you query closed agents anyway, and don't think not querying a closed agent is self-rejecting. We think of self-rejecting as saying "that agent wouldn't go for this" or "this agent wouldn't like that" or "they have a book like this" and not sending yours over. It's worth a shot.
@@BookEndsLiterary My point was, anytime you decide not to query, for any reason you are self-rejecting. and sometimes there are legitimate reasons for doing so. To tell people "do not self-reject" without carefully explaining the context of the situation, is to invite people to disregard the circumstances when they should not query.
Aaaauuuugh! Jessica I specifically did not send my query to you, even though I think you are one of the coolest humans on earth and you are totally my dream agent, because your "list" does not contain fantasy for grownups and I was trying to Follow the Rules and not send queries to people who don't specifically say they rep the genre I (kind of) write in! Instead I Followed the Rules and took the "standard advice," and sent it to someone else at your agency because their list does contain fantasy - and of course they rejected it because it was written for women like you and I, not for women like her (though I'm sure she is a fine woman and a great human being, in her own way.) But now I can't send it to you because sending a query to two different agents at the same agency gets you (or so They say) a Big Black Mark on your name. Now, I have already self-published this book, but when I start my new series I will Break the Rules and query you, because my MCs are like you and I: grown-ass women who refuse to believe magic can only happen to people under 19! So, when you get my query, you may say "OFGS why do people keep sending me things outside my stated represented genres" but please know, I will only say: "I learned it from watching you!" :D
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