This afternoon, because I was stuck, I submitted The Ash Grove to 8 agents, 3 UK, 5 US. This evening I got a wonderful rejection letter from "an agent" it read thus:
Thank you for your email. You wrote such a strong submission letter that I read your chapters on the way home this evening. I think you're a great writer, but after a promising start I'm afraid that David didn't quite manage to keep me interested. His frequent ruminations on his job and his thoughts on women, stood in the way of something more exciting happening, perhaps. And I was slightly concerned, even as I read your letter, that WW1 fiction (and I know this isn't really about the war, but it can't help but involve that context) has been widely published over the last 18 months and editors are looking for something a bit different now.
If you write anything else and are still looking for representation further down the line, I'd be glad to hear from you again. In the meantime, good luck with this novel.
With best wishes,
You can't really expect a much better rejection email... it's gloriously frustrating though - she begins to suggest what's needed, but I'm thinking - I could re-write and dynamise it more, but if there's no WW1 market anyway... I had the ingenious idea of asking Eyvor to read it - and she will ask a friend to read it too - so with luck I might get some really helpful feedback and do a re-write. It's all so difficult. But as I'm having a break from TMOF...it doesn't seem such a bad idea to re-visit it. Eyvor said she'd read it on hr return journey tomorrow - which is fab!
