Historical fiction. Polite form rejection at one week.

8/22/22 EQ Historical 108K
8/23/22 Request for MS
8/25/22 Very kind rejection. It was not a form letter and included encouraging words re my writing and how much she enjoyed it. She mentioned the challenges of the publishing market at this time and she must be "subjective and very selective" and "in love" with the novel to take it on.

EQ: 8/21/2022 (mentioning her client's recommendation)
FR: 8/21/2022

94K Upmarket fiction

EQ: 8/14/22
Full Manuscript Requested: 8/14/22
Rejected: 8/18/22
Historical Fiction (81K)

Dear Peter:

Thank you for letting us review your material for TEXIAN BY CHOICE, which we read with great interest.
Unfortunately, we have determined that we are not the appropriate agents to represent this material.? In this very competitive market, we are simply not enthusiastic enough about our ability to sell this work to offer representation.
We wish you the best of luck placing this successfully. Thank you, once again, for letting us consider it.
Best regards,
Jane Dystel

Am I missing something? It looks like Query Tracker is indicating that people are stilly querying this agent. But there is no button to contact her on her webpage, so it looks to me that she is closed to queries.

@JohnEvans86, I can see how it may appear this is how QM works, but it isn't nearly as fancy. There is no AI. I wouldn't know how to begin to implement something like that. You are right that there is a way for agents to flag queries based on keywords, but nothing automatic happens after that. The agent still needs to view the query and then manually apply a decision. All the flag does is help to bring the query to the agent's attention faster. And not all agents will use this feature.

Anyway, I just wanted to alleviate concerns that authors are at the mercy of some AI monster. It is nothing like that. I hope this helps.

@brucesmom77
Your whole query didn't "work" for them. Agents who use QT/QM use the AI to scan submissions for buzzwords matching whatever trend they are chasing or group they are pandering too. Up awards of 80% of submissions are deleted the second you hit submit.

You got a Full Request "Within minutes"(Less time than it would have actually taken to read the query) because the AI flagged your query automatically because you had enough of the buzzwords, no one actually looked at it until you sent the full request, then they looked at it and realized the AI turned in a false positive didn't your book didn't actually fit the trend. So they sent you the typical form rejection.

Email Query 6/20.
Full requested minutes later.
Sent full next day.
Form rejection 9 days later.
Very disheartening. How am I supposed to know what worked/didn't work?? They should personalize feedback on a full.

Resent my Query per their website: "Do resend your query email if you haven’t heard from us in 8 weeks, noting the date previously sent. Our goal is to read and respond to every query in that time frame." Though I forgot to mention the previous time I mailed it. Ughhh

Agency reps Kate Finegan (Longleaf editor, lives in Saskatchewan)

EQ: 03/08/22 adult sci-fi 76k
CNR: 05/07/22

Email query 4/28/22

NA Fantasy 114K

Email Query - 4/21/22
78K - YA/Crossover Adult Contemporary Romance
25 sample pages

Form Rejection - 4/28/22

Thanks so much for letting us take a look at your materials, and please forgive me for responding with a form letter. The volume of submissions we receive, however, makes it impossible to correspond with everyone personally.

Unfortunately, the project you describe does not suit our list at this time. We wish you the best of luck in finding an agent and publisher for your work, and we thank you, once again, for letting us consider your materials.

Sincerely,

Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC

EQ 4/15/2022
ER 4/21/2022: Dear NAME,

Thanks so much for letting us take a look at your materials, and please forgive me for responding with a form letter. The volume of submissions we receive, however, makes it impossible to correspond with everyone personally.

Unfortunately, the project you describe does not suit our list at this time. We wish you the best of luck in finding an agent and publisher for your work, and we thank you, once again, for letting us consider your materials.

Sincerely,

Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC

Note: very nice response time. Even though it isn't the response I was hoping for, I can at least move on to the next one. Good luck to everyone.


Something positive to hear: There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb
-Miley Cyrus. Look up the song "The Climb"

EQ 4/3
ER 4/7
memoir 88K
A very nice rejection letter. Perhaps it is a form rejection, but it is a nice one. "Thank you for letting us review your material for ____ , which we read with great interest. Unfortunately, we have determined that we are not the appropriate agents to represent this material.? In this very competitive market, we are simply not enthusiastic enough about our ability to sell this work to offer representation.
We wish you the best of luck placing this successfully. Thank you, once again, for letting us consider it. "