Jessica said she told the writer, “I wrote that I’d not ‘fallen in love’ with the material….” and I say, it would take the same amount of time to write what she wrote as to write one of the following: there were too many holes in the plot, or I didn’t feel sympathetic to the protagonist, or too much editing is needed, etc. Any of those reasons would have been more helpful than the standard, I just didn’t fall in love with it.

Then again, I could be wrong here and nothing was wrong with the MS and the only thing Jessica could say was what she did say. So, I’ll shut up now and go back to my writing. Lol.

One thing that stood out for me, at a time when there seems to be a rising trend of the opposite: you actually still send rejection letters. That matters. In fact, I’d say it’s way more important than the originality of your response. Rejections are how we thicken our skin. Frankly, I think it’s more offensive when agents choose only to respond if interested, because no answer leaves writers anxious, frustrated, and without closure. Thank you for being an agency who responds.

Sure it’s nice to get feedback, but does any author really want submissions to take even longer if every submission had to be critiqued? I know I don’t. Waiting is almost an art for authors these days. The best way, in my opinion, to soften the blow is to give the response as quickly as possible.

Useful feedback is just icing on the cake, and it should be rare. It means you’re oh so close.

I also understand that the amount of queries an agent receives makes it impossible to give a personal reply to everyone and it’s necessary to have form rejection letter. However, when material is requested, I can see how a writer would hope for something less generic as the reason for being rejected. Apparently, you requested the manuscript and as you stated, “I read, admired, and ultimately, after much time and consideration, decided not to represent.”

IMO, saying I just didn’t fall in love with the material, says nothing and doesn’t help the writer, so I can see her frustration. What you wrote in your third paragraph is exactly what a writer would like to know: undeveloped storyline, characters with whom I’d rather not pass 350 pages, utter lack of editorial vision for how to place it, …worry that the telling does not match the tale, or the story is suited to a smaller circle of readers than most publishers would wish to reach.

Those reasons are helpful because it gives a writer something to work with. Just one of them would have been one hundred times more beneficial to the writer than saying, “I didn’t fall in love with it.” Of course, this is the way I see it and I haven’t even begun to query. I hope to later this year, so I’m off to buy a suit of armor.