While Rejection MAY Mean You're a Terrible Writer, It Could Mean Something Else

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I don't submit a lot of book-length manuscripts anymore, especially in the field of children's lit, but a couple of days ago I received an interesting rejection on one I submitted to an agent this past summer.

"I thought this was a really interesting plot (and my dream is to solve murders in an English village!) Unfortunately, MG is so very saturated right now, and mysteries have been really hard for me to sell, so I have to pass"

The book is set in a small Connecticut town and not an English village, but I get her point.

My point is that her message illustrates that manuscripts can be rejected for all kinds of reasons having nothing to do with the manuscript itself. Writers hear that over and over again at workshops and read it in articles and blog posts. But it's rare, in my experience, for agents to explain the reasoning behind their thinking when they reject something.

It's rare, and it's very gratifying.