Friday, February 20, 2009

Rejection notice from literary agent


A month ago I was surprised to receive an email from a literary agent interested in my semi-fiction piece BET ON CRAZY. These vignettes cover my years as a diamond dealer on West 47th Street in New York. This interest was unsolicited, so I took special care to present my writing in the right light in hopes of getting published. Instead the agent rejected my offering.

Here's her letter.

Hi Peter-

These stories are certainly interesting and I found your writing very engaging but I am afraid ultimately I didn’t see the book here. The publishing industry is having a difficult time right now and for me to take on a new client I need to be quite confident I can sell it well- I am afraid I didn’t have the necessary enthusiasm to take this on for representation.

No commerical value. No sell-out.

"Please let me sell-out."
Please remember that publishing is a business of opinions and mine is just one. Thanks so much for thinking of me and I wish you the best of luck in placing it elsewhere.

Best,

Agent

I thanked her for the interest and went back to writing my novel about teenage devil worship in the 1960s, where a young boy sells his soul to the Devil in order to save his parents' marriage.

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