After completing a novel and giving sample chapters to friends and family, who give you effusive prasie. You finally feel confident in the knowledge of its quality to send it off to the experts(quote un quote)the agents. You arrogantly feel the the first agent you send it to will see it for the master piece it is. But after nine rejections you get a reality check and realise it really is a competitive market out there! One question, who are the readers at literary agencies? They are undoubtedly overwhelming white and middle class and southern! Just a thought for you all to ponder on. Does that qualify them to know what captures the zeitgiest of what resonates with people today? Something to consider. Anyway I've amassed a personal record three rejections in a day!!

Keep the faith and try not to be despondent you will get that manuscript published!!

Kenny.

Kenny,

Hi and welcome to WW. It's a great place and I hope you gain as much from the experience as you possibly can.

But can I say that I don't quite understand your posting. Are you saying, and I might have got this wrong (if so I apologise), that you have written one novel, submitted it, had it rejected and now you are questionning the professional credentials of the readers at whatever establishments you have submitted the manuscript to?

Is that the point you're making?

By the way, I'm white, middle class and southern. And proud of it!

Take the chance to a look around you, Kenny. We can all learn something from the terrific writing on this site!

Good luck

John

(As one hopeful writer to another, I know you won't mind me pointing out that the first sentence of your posting is, in fact, not a sentence. I'm told that attention to detail is essential if you want to succeed in this business.)

Kenny

Readers can be other authors, semi-retired editors, other agents, etc. I did reading for my last agent and currently read for another agency. Some readers have been extremely helpful with my manuscripts - pointing out what did and didn't work and even suggesting at times majory surgery. You're right: friends and family are not objective and almost certainly not trained enough to assess your work. Which means you need to take account of any non-personal feed-back you manage to get. Of course this doesn't mean that a standard rejection from an agent condemns your work as useless - it usually just means they aren't interested at this moment in time.

I've no idea at all about today's zeitgiest, but then I'm white and middle class. I have got a pretty good nose for good (and bad) writing. And by 'good' I mean as in well constructed, original, exciting, flowing and full of surprises. I had a quick look at the opening paragraph of your piece on this site. I’d say it needs quite a lot of work. You set up an interesting scenario but it's let down by awkward sentence structure and a somewhat flat style, e.g. ‘She was a stranger as I have never seen her before and I was familiar with most of my neighbour’s friends’. Something like, “I’d never seen her before” says the same thing without cluttering up the flow with information we don’t need to know.

Good luck.

Terry

Hi Kenny - at least you got far enough to finish the work and send it out, which puts you together with a lot of us wonderful WW people in a very exclusive club! I feel I have to take the attitude that an agent knows what they are likely to be able to sell, and that saleablility and quality are not necessarily the same thing. I figure its no good an agent taking on my work knowing full well they don't have a snowball's chance of actually being able to sell it in the current climate, even if in a few years time publishers would be falling over themselves.
There are two things though that in a perfect world I would wish for. One is to get that personal feedback and advice from an agency, more to help me improve than anything else. But of course why should they? They have enough submissions to read as it is.
Secondly, I personally would be happy for a savvy agent to take me on, on the understanding that there is no market now, but that there will be and they will have my book to whip out as soon as there is demand. But unfortunately the commercial world doesn't seem to act that way either. it might be shortsighted, and not geared to books with any depth at the moment, but thats just how it is.
The first time I sent out my novel I got a rapid and very helpful comment back from a publisher - the terms used were 'really engrossing'! But no acceptance. I was duly encouranged and glowing, only to have the next two boomerang with alarming rapidity from agents with no more than a compliment slip and polite 'go away'! I am now awaiting three returns, and not for a minute thinking that any will be accepted - that way i won't be too disappointed when they do come back, and if the miracle happens.....well I will be posting in capitals, thats for sure :-))

Hi Kenny, it's always useful to remember that rejections are not personal, and that both badly written and well written material does get published.
Becca.

Hi Becca

The point I was making was about the literaray and publishing industry in the uk in general. It is an indisputable fact that it is very Londoncentric. Would Irving Welsh have got an agent and publisher for Trainspotting in London and England? I somewhat doubt it. That's why its good that you have publishing houses like Canongate which show more voices from the uk, ie north of the Watford gap. It would be interesting to hear from writers from the midlands and the north and their views.

Cheers
Kenny

Fair enough, Kenny.
Becca.