I sent out about 30 query letters and received, so far, fifteen ‘HELL NO!’ responses. Okay, not exactly those words, but they felt like it to me. Oh well.
Some day, I’ll write a story about the journey to publishing my first novel. For now, just enjoy some of the heart breaks I’ve experienced along the way:
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Dear Author,
Well, it’s finally happened: after over thirty years of answering every query letter that has ever come my way, I’ve been forced to finally acknowledge that a new era is upon us all. Before the arrival of e-mail submissions, I used to receive perhaps one hundred queries a week. That was a lot of queries but it wasn’t frankly unmanageable. The Friedrich Agency now receives more than twice that on a daily basis and it’s becoming impossible to attend to much of anything else! I’m so sorry for the impersonal response, I hate to do this. Writing a good book or a good proposal is among the hardest things in the world to do; I promise, we’re not unsympathetic! You have our word that we are reading every single query letter that comes our way, but from now on, we’re only responding personally if we’re sufficiently curious and would like to read further. Please don’t take offense at this Draconian measure– there is undoubtedly a wonderful agent out there for whom your book might just be the perfect match. Toward that end, we wish you all the best!
Take care.
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Thanks. I read the attached with great interest. It’s well written, and promises a substantial, serious work. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s something which we could represent successfully to our own editorial contacts at the big commercial publishers, given how tough the market is right now. However, I wish you the best of luck elsewhere.
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I have received your query. After careful evaluation, I have decided that I am not the right agent to represent your work. I’m sure another agent will feel quite differently about your material though.
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Thank you for considering our agency. I wish you the best of luck finding representation. Due to the volume of queries and submissions I receive, I’m unable to provide a personal evaluation and/or further explanation of my decision.
Best.
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Thanks for letting me take a look. I’m afraid this doesn’t seem like the right project for me, but I’m sure other agents will feel differently. Best of luck placing your work.
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Hi Florida . I’m afraid this isn’t connecting wholeheartedly with me, so I’ll step aside, but thank you for the look.
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Not for us, thanks.
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Thank you for thinking of me with your query. While this sounds like a strong project, I’m afraid it doesn’t strike me as a likely fit with me and my particular editorial contacts. I wish you well in finding the right agent for your work.
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Thank you for your recent query but this does not seem right for me so I’m going to respectfully pass on looking at more material. Best of success with the project.
Yours sincerely.
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Like I said, some day I shall write a story about this process. In the mean time, you can read an excerpt of the book I was shopping around here and here
Ciao
Filed under: Literary Presence, Shotmusinz
wow. this must hurts no matter what ndo.
have you thought of self publishing like Myne?
self-publishing would be my very last resort. in the mean time, i’ll keep pressing on
why do i have a feeling this is a standard response and they didn’t actually read the manuscript??
it is well my dear,i felt mega rejected too when i get similar letters after my job interviews
Yep. felt like applying and not getting a job, to tell you the truth.
i feel*
lol
As a future writer myself, I can only imagine how devastating this must be. I hope you’re not discouraged. Wishing you the best!
Naa. it’s not devastating anymore. when i received them, yes. then, i shrug it off and move on to the next agent. @ least, this is still far less rejections than Harry Potter got.
This can’t be easy. You will definitely find one who connects with your book soon. There are buku agents out there. Certainly, one of them has got to be interested. Like you said, keep pressing on. Your day will surely come…
I know the feeling *sigh*
Someone will have to say yes. Best believe that! Goodluck, hun
Fred, its the very same Kevin. I got the below email from you this morning and I thought it was bizarre. I was so disturbed by it that it messed up my entire morning at church. I struggled to reconcile the Kevin I know with the message from the email. I hope you will give the this email the same mass distribution appeal as you did when you sent this to me
First off, I’ll try to portray the Kevin I know and let you be the judge (if you are comfortable judging another man).
I think the rhetoric should be refocused on the issue of medical malpractice which we suspect ended Ogo’s life, may her soul rest in peace. There is nothing to suggest that Ogo died from abuse, wife battering or neglect as the email proposes. I don’t claim to know Ogo and Kevin more than the writer of this email, but it seems spooky to me that Ogo would be speaking from the grave for a relationship she lived in and never blurted these issues or I don’t think she would have wanted her matter in the public domain. Its hard for me to see the stock value in the vitality of these insinuations. I’ve tried to learn something out of it and the only common denominator is the allusion that the Ibo culture needs overhaul. We all can agree to that. Evidently the writer has some insider information or access to a Ogo’s journal but I think this is invasion of privacy by another party which quite frankly is not lawful
You see, Ogo had a medical condition (not sure if it was pre-existing) and Kevin never supported his wife being attended to in-country because of the peculiar and delicate condition of the ailment (I’ll keep her ailment confidential if you don’t mind). A week before she passed away, as the email mentioned, he sponsored her trip to the UK, as any husband should do, and she had to go in for a follow up procedure. He was hesitant to the choice of a Lagos hospital, but Ogo insisted the doctors asserted it was a simple procedure, it would just take a couple of hours. What she was not told was that anesthesia administration on a condition as hers was going to be very delicate. Unfortunately, Ogo never made it out of anesthesia. I challenged Kevin and encouraged him to sue for medical malpractice for negligence and so on. A grief-stricken Kevin told me that the line of action I suggested would not bring his wife back to life. I told him we would wait until Ogo is laid to rest and we will embark on the enterprise of bringing the rogue doctors in
On the issue of the car, I was in Houston in Jan 2010 when he went looking for a Lexus RX 450 for his wife, a hard to find model of the RX series at the time. He searched high and low, hired a car consultant to take the wife out on numerous dealership visits to get the car of her dreams to his loving wife. Kevin also planned to sell the much discussed car below long before her surgery. I’m amazed why we cannot give Kevin the benefit of the doubt as to his intent to selling the car. Was he going to buy her another one? He had demonstrated that he was capable of buying one already so why is selling one a big deal? I trust that no one is in doubt that he did not plan his wife’s demise to sell the car. Let’s be clear that she died of improper anesthesia administration, not abuse, neglect or battering
I stayed with Kevin for two weeks at his invitation at their Houston home before moving to a hotel. I moved out of my own accord not because there was battering in the house, or things I was not comfortable with. In fact being in the house afforded me the opportunity to see how Kevin reacted to his kinsman when one of them insulted Ogo. His nephew, evidently still struggling with life in a cosmopolitan school in the US and having a home he could have three square meals, had not performed some basic domestic activity such as cleaning up after yourself in the house. I watched how Kevin reined in his kinsman and totally disciplined him for insulting his wife. I am also aware how Kevin went against the dictates of his kins men when his special-needs son had to be home-schooled. The son was not settling in well in the facilities in Houston and Ogo had determined that living with her sister in Lagos was the best option. Much to the chagrin of his kins men, Kevin fully supported Ogo’s preference and sent his son to Lagos. If that is not standing up for your spouse in the midst of extended family adversity, then I don’t know what else is. If you understand the Ibo culture, you will agree that was a bold step in severing the line with your brothers if you have to tow a “woman’s line”. Its tragic that Kevin is being put on the dock for the generational Ibo culture that has been unkind to women folk. I will like to separate both issues…Ibo culture and Kevin’s role in Ogo’s death. Its not news that Kevin sometimes had to borrow money for his late wife’s treatment overseas, pay out of pocket expenses for her treatment when they lived abroad. All these things are not great exploits, because a man is supposed to do these things anyway. What’s hard to believe is if you will do these things for someone you don’t love. The Ibo culture pressures on boy-girl battle of the sexes and second-fiddle nature of wives who have almighty God-arranged delayed-child bearing is legendary and have been the subject of several home videos. Let’s not put Kevin in the dock for these sins of our fathers
If Kevin was a wife batterer or abusive, then both of them did a pretty good job of concealing the matter for the time I was there. Only the walls of the bedroom and God will ever know the truth. And if he was abusive and a wife-beater, I would suggest to him to repent quickly of this wicked way and seek God’s mercy. Its the lowest of men who put a finger on their wives. As for the insinuation that he skipped his girl-child christening because he was angry, I would say that Isnt a true statement. The christening was in Houston and Kevin was in Lagosbat thentime, working ona project I was involved in…that, I am pretty sure about. What I do know is that everyday Kevin returned from work, Amanda was the first person he went for before eating his plate of beans…every single day. And Ogo was really pleased he was doing that. Was he staging it for my benefit, I am not his god and did not see any reason for a father not to truly love his kid
In summary, its hard for me to reconcile the facts of the below email with what I know of Kevin. I know the email has really gone viral with at least 5% of the Nigeria population receiving it on their blackberry over the weekend. Whoever orchestrated this viral effort, I’d like to hire the person to help me spread the gospel of Christ with as much fervency. Gossip thrives in the public space but the bible says we should not judge a matter until we have heard the other party. Its unclear if Kevin with put out a rebuttal of the below email, I think its unnecessary and the young man should be allowed to mourn his wife and lay her to rest. He is currently calling for tributes to his wife to be published on the day of interment. If you have anything nice to say about Ogo, that will be a good avenue to portray it rather than try and demonise a grieving husband. This is totally wicked. Again, I am not absolving Kevin of any wrong doing, but there are issues in any husband-wife relationship and as the email suggests, Ogo dearly tried to make it work. Let’s continue to make our own marriages work, and let the dead, bury the dead
Linda, thanks for posting this story on your site, but I would appreciate if you would acknowledge that the story came from the Ogo’s maternal family who are grieving. While they are grieving and feeling the loss of their daughter, it would be unthinkable to imaine that the Kevin’s family to whom Ogoo really shone, not just as a paragon of beauty, but also as a dutiful wife and life partner, but also as a true second half to Kevin, are not grieving as much.
Every marriage has their issues, and it is a shame that this marriage ended this way. However, having known the couple personally all through the period of their marriage, I can strongly state that the story as written on your site has a lot of lies and untold truths in it. Though I think Kevin’s family may not want join on issues with this story-teller who surely knows better, on a blog in the interest of the memory of the deceased, I think it would be right to put some facts about this relationship straight. First, it is true that Kevin and Ogoo were married for several years without children. However, it is untrue that Ogoo was taking medication early in marriage for fertility. Ogoo had a pre-existing medical condition prior to marriage to do with her lungs. She had several procedures/surgeries done in Nigeria, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and Canada done to manage her lung disease, all at the expense of her husband, Kevin. Yes, Kevin did love her enough to send her to most of these places up to 7 years into marriage without children. All this was in a bid to manage the lung issue. At some point, the doctors told them it was safe to start trying for babies, and fertility treatments were recommended and taken. The two darling children, Kamsi and Chimamanda were born of these efforts. True, Kamsi may have been slow in development, but both his parents loved him very much, and I can personally attest to this. I am saddened that the person who wrote the letter, who knows this family very well, did not allude to all the love and effort that has been showered on Kamsi by his parents
rejection letters are really heartbreaking. but one day someone will say yes, hopefully very soon. wish you all the best.