4 Reasons Why I Got Rejected by 70 Literary Agents
2016 was an interesting year for me.
I’m sure I accomplished a lot, but all I remember is typing up a new query letter every day, sending it, and waiting patiently for the inevitable rejection. It always came. Most of the time the literary agents never sent back anything at all. Those always stung a bit more.
I adopted this torturous routine because around 2015/2016 was when I finished my first novel, The Blue Barricade. My ten-year-old self had always dreamed of traditionally publishing his first book, so that was the road I chose to go down.
I knew how long, uneven, and damaged that road was before I walked down it. Everyone knew the horror stories. Unfortunately, those stories couldn’t prepare me for how soul-crushing that road ended up being.
It wasn’t just the rejection. Nope, I got numb to that after the 30th or so time. It wasn’t the fact that most of the agents never responded at all, even if that always stung. No, I think what really got to me was that pretty much all of those rejections were completely my fault.
These are the reasons why all of my queries were rejected. I hope it teaches you what not to do if you’re querying too.
