No Answer Means No - Professionally, I Disagree

NOTE and/or WARNING: This is a bit or a rant/editorial/opinion piece. These are simply my thoughts. 

This last weekend, I was at a conference, and stumbled across a post by Jane Friedman, titled, "Silence: The New Rejection That's Expanding in Insidious Ways." This was originally posted June 26, 2025 by Jacqueline Salmon. It once again brought up the new trend editors and agents have been using of the "No answer means no approach."

In this article, it talks briefly about some potential reasons for people doing this and I have certainly heard reasons other editors and agents have used. Heck, I have seen this in responses I get when I sent out a question to someone and get the infamous message "Due to the amount of emails we get, we will only respond to those we feel we want to advance..." message. 

And like you, I hate that message. But I will say, as a side note, at least with that message, I know my email made it to the company I was trying to reach. That email response is so important in a digital age considering how many times we have sent an email out and it disappeared into cyberspace. We know we sent it, it is in our "sent" file, but it did not make it to the person we wanted, or maybe that company no longer exists? This is why those responses are important. 

The article does note that it doesn't take that long to at least respond with a simple message of, "Sorry, this no longer meets our needs."

And yet, this is becoming even worse. It seems that many are getting to the point that they are "walking on eggshells" around editors and agents so as to not "trigger" their personal feelings. As Salmon noted, "Responding, even after expressing initial interest, could open that floodgate to follow up-emails..."

Oh give me a break!

If you are an author, and you want to be a PROFESSIONAL author in this BUSINESS OF PUBLISHING then learn to accept the answer no, and learn to be professional and business like. You do not need to see this as an opportunity to "try one more time" with something we said no on, or try to tell us that we did something wrong or any other message. Just deal with it. 

And honestly, here at Greyhaus, answering emails is something that is a professional standard. OK, I will admit I do not answer those who just send me their promotional material for their self-published book or send me unsolicited offers to provide a service to my agency. But I will respond.

If we in the publishing industry want to see authors improve in their writing, we have to give them something to work with when they send us those query letters. If the story is not something we acquire, then maybe getting a few of those messages over and over again will get them to pay attention and read before sending the material. If we request at least a partial and, in the end, it doesn't work for us, give them something of why it doesn't work. Let me explain.

There are times when I just don't connect with the story. I tell them this is a subjective business. All of yo know that there are times when someone likes a book, gives it to you and you totally hate it. The same thing can happen here. If you think the plot is disjointed, then simply tell them that. If you personally don't like the character, then tell them. 

Again, it doesn't take much.

And as I said earlier, if you are a writer and cannot handle someone telling you your story may not be good, this is not a business for you!

 

Making First Person Better? Hmmm? Scott's Thoughts

I was scrolling through social media earlier this week and saw a post of why a person hated 1st person (already liked this person) but then she noted how she recommended solutions to make it so that she would like the writing. OK, so she had me hooked so I kept sweeping to see what she said. 

Her complaint was the excessive use of sentences starting with "I". It was simply over-kill was her argument. While I totally agree with this statement. I would also argue that it is a problem with pretty much any word that authors tend to use when they write. I find myself doing that time and time again when I write. There are days when I write and find myself using the same word starting paragraphs, or I use the same phrase repetitively in that day's writing. How do I notice this? I pay attention to what I write. My words don't just dump on the page. It requires paying attention! There are days, even here on the blog that I catch my self starting sentences with "So". (Must be something in the coffee?) Who knows. In any case, let's get back to her 1st person argument. 

Her only complaint about 1st person was the use of "I" so all she did was change the beginning of the sentences. To her, wordsmithing on a sentence level fixes the issue. And that, my friends, is where too many authors are making mistakes. And that is also why it is not going to fix my biggest issue with 1st person for so many authors. 

First of all, changing sentence structure is just cosmetic. It makes a sentence sound different. That is all it does. Changing a word does not change the context. Secondly, one of her suggestions was just starting with an action, which again, is just cosmetic. All that she is recommending is changing the sentence around from a basic sentence to a complex sentence (moving the subject later into the sentence with dependent clauses in the beginning...[lost you, huh?]). 

But my real issue with 1st person is the lack of depth that 1st person provides. Again, this is something I bring up here on the blog whenever I talk about it. This is the same example I provide, but it is a good one. If I want to describe a room to a reader and I want to describe it in third person, I can describe the carpeting, the wall paper, the temperature of the room, the china in the cabinet, the lighting, the history of the room, etc. I can add all of that depth. If there are people in the room, I can add in who the people are, their history, brief bio's of those people, their actions, their appearances and so forth. If it is in 1st person and I am just rushing into the room with the groceries and it is my own home, I only have one thing on my mind. To get those eggs to the counter and I don't give a rip about Gradma Eunice's Christmas plates in the China hutch that reminded me of the festivities of the season, or of the smell of the tree in the corner. I want to get the damn eggs to the counter because I am tired. 

In simple terms, too often, writers stick to 1st person because A) they think a genre is supposed to be written that way because that is what they have seen or what they have been told; or B) they are comfortable writing dialogue and writing narrative is hard. 

Remember, just changing words will not fix the problem.

Misunderstanding Conflict In Romance

Conflict seems to be a tough one for a lot of authors to handle when it comes to their stories. They hear about it all of the time when they go to workshops and they learn about the character's GMC (Goals, Motivations and Conflicts). And yes, these are indeed conflicts at one level. These are individual character's issues. In other words, a single character has a goal to achieve, has a motive to achieve it, and a conflict standing in the way. 

No problem there.

But when it comes to romance, we have to deal with another level of conflict, and that has to be the conflict standing in the way of the two characters actually getting together. Often you will hear editors and agents talking about "raising the stakes" for the characters. We want the readers to know that, yes, they will make it to the happily every after (it is a romance after all), but we need to know that they will have to work for it.

Think of it this way. If all the characters have to do is say the "L" word, then this is not a conflict. While for most of us, getting that word out the first time is tough because we really don't know the reaction of the other person, there really isn't much to lose other than maybe a little awkwardness. A real conflict however is the characters have to decide between a relationship and something else. Let's say take the classic trope of a corporate romance. The company has a policy of no in company romances. So, do they have a romance or does someone find a new job? Does someone choose to relocate to make a romance work or not? 

Yes, a lot of these conflicts can start externally, but the conflicts WILL interact with the character's personal GMC. So that character in the corporate romance has a goal of upward mobility in the company, their motivation is to prove to their family they can do it because the entire family has always been successful, and their conflict is their internal belief that they have been told by professors in college they would never do it and they should just get married. Now add in the romance. 

See what I mean?

Hopefully that clears things up!

When Do I Decide To Reject?

So, here's a question... If Scott has asked for additional material from an author, whether it is a partial or a full, at what point does Scott decide to pass on the project? Gosh, that is a great question Scott, let me answer that one for you!

First of all, when I do ask for additional material, there is something in the query letter and the premise of the story that tells me this might be something an editor I know is looking for, or it might be something I have been looking for, or it might be something that sounds totally unique. It just stands out in someway. Most of the time, I ask only for a partial. When I ask for a full, it is often because of some other factor that is coming into play with the author or the story. 

Now I have the story and it is time to read. So, when do I stop? Let me list several different scenarios:

#1 - The writing immediately turns out to be awful. Yes, this happens! You have had this happen to you before when you pick up a book and by the time you start reading a book, you hate it within the first few pages. Same thing here. There is a gut feeling. End of story. 

#2 - The writing immediately screams elementary writing. What I am talking about here is when it is clear that the writing has just started learning the craft of writing and the things that he or she is doing are things that someone has told them to do because "it will work." This would be using plot devices that are out of place or cliche' phrases that clearly are inserted because the author heard that was what should be done.

#3 - When I hate the character(s) Readers have to like the characters. We have to want to cheer them on. We want to be on their side. But if we are finding the characters being jerks or doing things that are unethical, we are going to quit on them. For example, the heroine has caught her husband cheating on her, so she goes out to a bar to pick up on a guy to do the same thing to him. Really? She hated when he did it to her but somehow it is justifiable now? A character who is down on their luck and struggling decides it is somehow OK, to steal out of the cash register that evening as the close out at the diner that night? Um, last time I checked, that is theft. 

#4 - No conflict I don't care how good the writing is, if there is nothing getting in the way of the characters getting together, and we get to the HEA, the we are done.

#5 - Repetitious or Episodic - This happens a lot with those authors who want to take the duel POV approach. If I see that the story is going no where and going no where fast, I am going to turn you off. 

In other words, I will give you a chance with your writing, just like you will give authors a chance when you get a book at a bookstore. But like you, I will also give up on a book, just as quick.