Thursday, March 24, 2011

Question from a Writer - Resubmitting

I understand that your policy is to not revisit a rejection. However, what if that novel had been completely reworked- to the point that it is 110% different?

Each agency works differently on the resubmission policy. For myself, I found that by not looking at revised projects eliminates the revolving door scenarion. In other words, every time I make comments, you turn around, make revisions and re-submit.

With that said, if the project is, as you said 110% different, then it is really a new story. In a case like this, I would assume the writer completely threw out project #1 and started from scratch. New story, new plot and so forth. If this is the case, then you aren't simply revising.

Email the agent and ask. If they say no, then they say no. When people ask me, I go back and look at my reason for rejecting the first time. Depending on what I saw will determine if I want to look again. Remember, everything is on a case by case basis.

Scott

2 comments:

  1. And how should we usually go about resubmitting? In my case, I started a novel and queried when I was just beginning (I know, stupid, but I didn't know better back then). That was two years ago. Since then I've dropped it, then revisited it and changed it completely. But it still has the same main characters and the main plot is still the same, even though structure, narrative style, defining details and subplots are different. When it's finished and completely polished (not making the same mistake twice here!) should I query as a new submission or as a resubmission? Is it worth mentioning I queried two years ago when I had just 20 pages that are completely from what my first 20 pages look like now? Or should I just treat as something new?

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  2. I did the same thing when I first began a few years ago. I was eager, excited, knew nothing about querying, suffered greatly from the rejection, considered setting the picture of the agent on fire...^-^... If I ever meet him in person I think I might crawl into a hole. My manuscript made a complete turnaroud since then, so has my reaction to rejection. I haven't had the courage to resubmit to the same agent. I don't think I ever will.

    What are your views to submitting to a different agent within the same company? I don't believe they pass stuff around to see if it fits better with someone else, but what do I know about agent protocol?

    Thanks.

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