Why Your Manuscript Might Be Getting Rejected And How To Fix It

Sending your novel out in the world is not for the faint-hearted. Nothing makes you feel more vulnerable than someone judging your work, and it's hard to remember that rejections are not personal, they're all business. At the end of the day, while your work means everything to you, an agent or an editor is looking at it in a monetary sense, i.e. can it make any. No matter how charming your story or lyrical your writing, if it won't sell copies, it may not see the light of day.

So what are some of the most common things a writer hears with rejections and how can you work your manuscript so that these comments won't apply to you?

THE STORY IS NOT FRESH ENOUGH
Sure, there are books we've read that are similar in story to others. In fact, some themes are used over and over again to the point of roll-your-eyes saturation. After all, how many books on vampires, mermaids, first love, road trips and kids with a super power can there be? As a writer, if crafting a novel with any of these storylines, it is certainly frustrating to see a plethora of these books on the market with new ones coming out every month and yours is rejected for this reason. But that's the point entirely: Why would someone want to plop down $17 to read a story they've already read? And why would a publisher invest thousands of dollars in a book when they already have a similar one on their list? The only thing you can do when you meet this type of comment is look for something to add to your story that makes it unique and completely different from what already exists. Research the current marketplace, see who published similar books, and make a point of reading every one you can. Then try and find what makes yours different than these and punch up that element and make sure it becomes a significant part of your query and logline to distinguish it. If you can't find one, then that's a pretty darn good place to start.

WHILE IT HAS SOME LOVELY MOMENTS, IT DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH HEFT TO DISTINGUISH ITSELF IN THE COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE
This translates into that while the story may be entertaining, there is not enough meat to it to make it stand out and sell. In a sea of high concept stories, why would anyone choose this one? That's not to say that every story needs to be high concept, but there needs to be something substantial enough in it other than it being characters going from A to B or boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl to make people want to read it. Publishers are buying fewer and fewer titles every year, so the bar is higher than its ever been to wow them and make them want to fight for your story when it does not have more obvious selling points. All you can do here is go through your book and see where you might be able to beef it up or add a storyline that will help it stand out. For example, if a character is bullied, maybe make the bullying aspect a bigger and more powerful theme. Or if a character has a strange quirk or obsession, play up more how it is affecting their life and everyone around them, therefore standing in the way ultimately of the character getting what he/she wants or needs.

THE STORY IS TOO QUIET
A quiet story, or a soft story, is the polar opposite of a high concept story. It may be beautiful, but again, it will appeal to a smaller sector of the marketplace and there may be reservations about its selling power. Some stories are just meant to be that, nothing more, and they become something else entirely if you try and tweak them too much to suit the marketplace. If a quiet romance can work for Sarah Dessen and sell, why can't it work for everyone else? The difference here is that Sarah Dessen has already established herself, and her publisher knows that her books will sell on her name alone because she's proven herself within her genre. It's much harder for a debut author to make a splash in this way in a quieter genre. You might want to put the quiet book aside to submit after you've sold something else, because once you've established yourself as well publishers may be more open to seeing other work from you that they might not have considered the same way initially. Regardless, quiet, soft stories remain a hard sell in this current market.

THE MANUSCRIPT DOESN'T LOOK PROFESSIONAL
Have you taken the time to go through your entire manuscript and check for spelling and grammar errors? It can make a huge difference in the presentation and readability to any agent or editor, and many may pass for that reason alone because the writer seems lazy or sloppy. Some writers may assume they don't need to go that extra mile because someone else will ultimately catch all that and clean it up for them. Not so. It is always essential to present your best, cleanest work. There are multitudes of websites out there that can help you with proper grammar and punctuation usage, so there is no excuse for not doing so before submitting your work to industry professionals.

THE MANUSCRIPT IS OVER-WRITTEN AND SELF-CONSCIOUS
This one is a big head-scratcher. What do all those buzz-words mean? Over-writing is just that: you are saying TOO much and it is taking the reader out of the story. Flowery language and over-description, or too many moments where the character is questioning everything and immediately coming up with the solution disrupts the flow and strays from an organic, consistent tone. Self-conscious writing is very often applied to first person narrative writing, and that's a tricky one. Because you are writing from one character's POV, you are relaying both their actions and their thoughts. However, there is supposed to be a wall maintained between the reader and the writer, and solid writing lets the reader forget the writer is there at all. Self-conscious writing is passages where the reader again loses that voyeur feeling and is reminded they are reading a story rather than being immersed in it. It is often an overuse of flowery language, literary devices and contrived and over-planned stories. This is a fixable problem, thankfully, and it may mean another revision or two (or more), but if you keep your eye trained to the places where this might be the case and rework them, you will end up with a stronger story.

I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
In life, there are people we like and people we don't. If we find their behaviors repugnant, their morals questionable and their personalities abrasive, chances are we won't like them much. So why is that any different when we are reading a story? If you want a reader to go on a journey with your character, he/she must be invested in him/her and care about what happens to him/her. Even if he/she is a miserable sot, he/she must have some redeeming qualities that are displayed that help a reader relate to and root for him/her. Relatability and likeability are hugely important.

There are obviously so many more, and at the end of the day, any agent or editor's pass is also completely subjective. However, it gives a writer a starting point to work with and see where they might be able to improve upon his/her story before it goes out too wide and great opportunities are lost.

Can you think of any other ones and how to fix them?

How Reading Craptastic Writing Makes You A Better Writer

There is absolutely nothing more satisfying to me than reading a fantastic book, being completely drawn in by the characters, description and dialogue and immersing myself in their lives. By contrast, there is nothing more frustrating, as a writer, and as a reader, than investing your time and the writing is just blah, the story pointless and the ending unsatisfying. However, there is just as much to be learned from utterly craptastic writing, if not more, than great writing.

Case in point: This weekend I read a YA novel that I had been looking forward to reading for some time. It is in the genre I love, the storyline had me completely hooked in, the author had written an earlier book that had been successful and this had received advance praise, and I anticipated a thoroughly satisfying read. Um, not so much. (Obviously, this is totally subjective and just my opinion - clearly the publisher took a different view, and you might as well.) Because I read so many books in this genre, I was immediately able to spot exactly wasn't working for me, and why, and make a conscious point when writing my own work to not employ any of these mistakes. (At least not consciously, and hopefully that's what crit partners and beta readers are for!) The purpose of this post is not to bash the writer or the book, but merely to serve as a template for showing how what didn't work can truly make or break a story for your reader. So, without further delay, here is my list of writing pet peeves, which an author-who-shall-not-be-named did an excellent job of bundling together in one book:

UNLIKEABLE CHARACTERS THE READER DOESN'T CARE ABOUT
This story primarily focuses on a relationship that evolves over the years between the male main character and his female best friend. At no point did I ever see or feel what bound these characters together, other than history, and both of them were fairly surface, if not unlikeable. Just giving your characters a few likes, dislikes and quirks does not give them a personality, nor does making them angst-ridden and moody make them "troubled" and make me care what happens to them. In fact, one of the characters was so completely "angry" that I wondered from early on why the hell the male main character didn't run like hell. Instead, he starts to fall for her, wanting to "save" her, and based on the way she talks to him and treats him, not to mention what a self-proclaimed stud he is, the reader can't imagine why. The thrill of the chase? Is he just that desperate? A masochist? It's one thing to draw wounded characters, but you must still give them some redeeming qualities that make the reader root for them and have compassion for them. Think of Matt Damon's character in the movie "Good Will Hunting."

DIALOGUE THAT GOES ON FOR PAGES AND PAGES WITH NO PURPOSE OR ACCOMPANYING ACTION
I love great dialogue, especially when it helps propel the story in a way description simply can't. However, I hate just reading page after page of characters talking about absolutely nothing. And just sitting at a coffee shop shoving food around on their plate with their fork over and over while doing it. For six pages. It's worth it to sit with long passages of dialogue and figure out what the objective of the scene is and how what the characters are saying to one another furthers the story. Otherwise, it just feels like filler.

OVER-DESCRIPTION
Nothing helps paint the picture of the character and their surroundings, or the action at hand, than great description. However, over-description can get boring and lead the reader to skim. Is the author just describing the same thing over and over in a myriad of ways? If so, it starts to feel like gratuitous words on a page, or a writer just enjoying hearing himself speak. When this pattern repeats itself a multitude of times over the course of several hundred pages, you isolate the reader.

ONE-DIMENSIONAL UNREALISTIC PARENTS
Parents come in all shapes and sizes, and can be integral characters in a YA novel or peripheral, minor characters. However much they make an appearance, the rules for creating them as three dimensional beings are no different than it is for the main characters. To have parents that say "sweetie, sweetheart, honey, sugar, etc." at the end of every sentence when addressing teens, particularly their own, seems stilted to me, unrealistic and one-dimensional. I may have talked like that to my daughter when she was three or five, but I don't talk to my sixteen-year-old or his friends that way. I I did, he'd probably ask me if I was feeling all right. :) If the character is going to talk like that, back them up with character traits that help explain why. Are they over-protective and always tend to treat the main character like a child despite their age? Are they medicated and spacey half the time? Self-absorbed and dismissive and not even really listening to what the teen is saying? Do you know a lot of people who talk this way in real-life? What are their personalities like? For some reason, I have noticed that giving parental dialogue the short shrift is not uncommon in YA, and I often give these passages of dialogue extra time and review in my own. Part of this has to do with the age of the writer as well. I know before I had kids, it was hard to write parental dialogue with the same ease and truth as it is now that I'm down and dirty in the trenches of it.

GRATUITOUS DEVICES: I.E. CHAPTER NAMES THAT SERVE NO PURPOSE
I actually love when writers use funny chapter names that tie in to the context of the story. It draws me deeper in. In my own novel, BAND GEEK, each chapter of my novel starts with the title of a Beatles song. The main character is a ginormous Beatles fan, and the Beatles play a minor role in the story itself. Additionally, the "theme" of each chapter ties in nicely with the titles of their songs, so I used it. An editor or a reader may not agree, because using chapter names can also be viewed as a cheap or gratuitous device if not used effectively. Case in point: using a song title when the chapter has nothing to do with that song, or the idea the song brings, and not being consistent by using the song titles throughout each chapter. For example, if I titled the first three chapters after Beatles songs, then randomly titled a chapter "Dating For Beginners" and then the next "My Life As A Goldfish" and then the next was named after a Duran Duran song fro the '80's, it's distracting and makes the reader wonder, frankly, what the point is. Bottom line: Be consistent. Use it effectively, or don't use it at all.

What are some of the things that drive you crazy when you see them in books that you pay close attention to in your own writing?

Sky Diving, Eating Pumpkin Cupcakes for Breakfast, And Other Things You Might Not Do But Your Characters Should

Okay, so admittedly, I have eaten pumpkin cupcakes for breakfast. Really, how are they that different from a donut? Or a muffin? Everyone knows muffins are just ugly cupcakes anyway. But, there are plenty of things I don't do because, truthfully, I'm not a hugely adventurous sort. I have great admiration for those that do, regularly branching free, fearless, from their comfort zones and launching themselves into new experiences.

There is no better place to take chances and live the life you've only wished you had the courage, means or resources to live than through your characters. While we search for universal truths when writing so that people can relate to our characters, it's also that special spike of a unique experience or a quirky trait that can transport us from our realities into another world. Not to mention, it's just plain fun to write.

Another great reason to write characters that are not flat (everyone does laundry, takes a walk now and then, goes on the occasional trip, whether it be to the Bahamas or Grandma's) is because it gives you a great chance to dive in and research. You can drive across country nowadays without ever leaving your chair via Google Earth and numerous websites. Your characters can bungee jump, fly on trapezes, climb Mt. Everest, run a marathon, etc., and finding out the terrain and what you can expect is also all at your fingertips. And best of all, it might inspire YOU to move out of your comfort zone and try something new yourself.

A great example of writing about something with total authenticity despite it not being an actual part of your life is C.J. Omolulu's amazing YA novel DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS. The novel is about a young girl forced to hide her mother's secret hoarding habit, until one day she comes home to find her mother dead and has to decide how far she'll go to keep the family secrets safe. I asked C.J. about her book at SCBWI LA this summer because I was so blown away by it, and she shared with me that neither she nor anyone else in her inner circle is a hoarder; she culled all that information purely from people sharing their stories and doing extensive research. It shows the power of how one can write so convincingly about something they have not experienced, and helps remove the stigma that you can only write what you have experienced firsthand. (P.S. If you haven't read this amazing novel yet - buy it today! It's six kinds of awesome!)

Putting your character in a life polar to your own makes the writing more fun and challenging. What reader wants to escape from their life by just simply reading about a character just moving through their day to day with no depth or dimension? We all long for that extra something something that allows us to tune everything else out and get lost. This doesn't mean if you're writing a contemporary YA novel that your character shouldn't be dealing with traditional high school problems and issues. But look for that spike - what if they had to deal with vampires too? (Think Twilight) Or ghosts of dead cheerleaders that only they can see/hear? (Think The Ghost and the Goth) or even something like THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY, by Jenny Han, where the main character must choose between the love of two brothers, but the setting plays as much of a role as the characters do, and you are swept up in the romance and the eloquence of her words.

So whether you're writing late at night because you're working or shuttling kids or whatever during the day, or you have the luxury of devoting yourself full time to your craft, get out and live a little. Take chances. Do new things. And know that it's all risk-free, because your characters are doing all the work! Besides, the worst that happens is you write a killer story, right? Now get writing!