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Friday, June 29, 2007

Has Jane Dystel Said "Yes" to You?

I chuckled to myself when I read how Literary Agent Jane Dystel "loves to say yes....and tries to do it at least several times a week." Or so she writes in a depressing little section on her agency blog devoted to rejection. The page is called Why Jane Dystel Turns Things Down . Actually, it's worth a look for the comments section alone. When Jane doles out some tired old advice about reporting previous rejection comments to perspective agents, one particularly astute Anonymous pins her right down: "You said, "If others have read and commented on them (your novel) it's also a good idea to include that information." Huh? If you mean your friends and family -- isn't that a major No-no, as in, "My mom liked this book?" Obviously if you are talking about other agents/editors, then is that still a smart idea? This agent liked it -- but not enough to represent it; here, do you want it?" As the Big Bad Wolf said when dressed in Granny's nightgown: The better to reject you with, my dear.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're kidding me here...right? Seeeeriously, Jan, (you're Jan Brady, right?) if Jane Dystel turned you down, it was because she didn't think your "epic, moving, diatribe," was right for her. It's not personal - but you sure are petty. Get. Over. It. Move on! Stop sniffling over Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

I know Jane personally, she has impeccable taste and she's been in the biz looooooong before YOU came along. But you're right...."whine, whine, whine...wha..wha..wha..poor me got a rejection!" My god, GROW UP! If you got an agent and you got a book deal - then go write something productive, cuz this is just a waste of time for my eyes to read.