During a recent live panel, we got to see subjectivity in action: two agents had genuinely different reactions to the same query.
The piece was a crime novel. Atmospheric, socially grounded, set in a working-class Pennsylvania town. A private investigator uncovers horrific crime beneath a community’s respectable surface. Strong comps. Clear stakes. Well-constructed.
Alyssa Jeanette, agent at Stone Song Literary Agency, responded within seconds: “Send it to me now.”
And then, over the course of giving the feedback, she and Jessica Sinsheimer had a visible, honest, human reaction to the subject matter–one that was uncomfortable, and important, and real. Not because the work was bad. Because it was doing its job.
Jessica said it plainly to the audience: “This is a great example of a work that is objectively incredibly strong–and you’re watching two very different reactions to it. So this means that if you get rejected, it does not mean your work is bad. It might just mean you describe the crime too well for that agent to handle it.”
That’s the thing about fit. It’s a lot more powerful than most writers give it credit for.
What “Fit” Actually Means
When agents talk about fit, they sometimes mean genre–they can’t take your romance if they don’t represent romance. They sometimes mean marketplace–we already have something similar on submission and can’t represent two books competing for the same editor’s attention.
But sometimes fit is just: this is excellent work, and it’s not for me.
That’s not a lie. They’re not just trying to make you feel better (they don’t have time). That’s the truth of how publishing works. Agents are people with taste, with emotional reactions, with a list they’ve built over years that reflects what they love and what they know how to sell. A book that’s “not for them” isn’t necessarily a book with a problem. It’s a book that needs a different reader.
“You can think your book is going to go super amazing, everyone’s fighting over it tomorrow–and it doesn’t happen,” Jessica noted in the Q&A. “You can think, well, no one’s going to like this because of the following reasons that are probably mostly your self-doubt. You have no idea. Heck, sometimes WE have no idea.”
That’s not discouraging. That’s actually freeing. If even the agents don’t always know, then the rejection really is just information, not a verdict.
The “Too Similar to Another Client” Rejection
Here’s one writers hear that tends to make them spiral: I’d love this, but it’s too close to another client.
In the Q&A, a writer mentioned getting exactly that response. Jessica’s take was unambiguous: “That is a huge vote of confidence. That means they took on something similar because they liked it, and they like these things about your book, too.”
Alyssa added the perspective agents don’t usually share: “Maybe that book went to a beauty contest [when several agents are fighting over the same work], and that agent got it, and maybe another agent is out there wanting what you wrote, because they missed out. That happens on our end with editors all the time.”
The submission process is not a single door. It’s a row of doors, and different doors open at different times, for reasons that have almost nothing to do with the quality of the work.
Why the Book of Your Heart Does Best
One of the other questions in the Q&A was about trends: is it a good sign when a well-established author moves into a new genre? Does it open up space for debut writers, or close it?
Alyssa’s answer was characteristically practical: there’s a “wait and see” quality to it, because publishers have to figure out whether the sales reflect the author’s platform or the genre’s appeal–and that takes time.
But underneath that answer was the same principle: chasing trends is a trap. “Every trend has a saturation point,” Jessica said. And the books that cut through, that find their readers, that get agents excited in the first place, these tend to be the ones the writer had to write, not the ones they wrote because the market seemed to want them.
“The book of your heart is always going to be what does best,” Jessica said.
That’s not a platitude. It shows up on the page. The specificity, the urgency, the willingness to go somewhere true–that’s what creates the kind of writing that makes an agent stop and say send it to me now. You can’t manufacture that reaction with trend research. You can only earn it by writing something you couldn’t not write.
What to Do With a Rejection
We know. Easier said than done.
But here’s a practical frame: treat each batch of queries the way you’d treat a small test. We recommend sending to about 20-30% of your list first, seeing what response rate you get, and adjusting before you send to the rest. If you’re getting consistent requests, something is working. If you’re getting consistent passes, it might be worth revisiting the query (not the book) before the next batch goes out.
(Want to know how you’re doing compared to other writers in your genre? We’re working on a Query Survey For Writers that will tell you exactly that.
And if you get a rejection with a real note in it–something specific, something that resonates–that’s a gift. Not because they’re right about everything (the industry is, if nothing else, subjective), but because it gives you something to work with.
If the rejection is just a form pass, that’s not data about your book (unless you only get forms and no response no reactions, in which case it might be time to pivot). It’s data about capacity and fit. Let it go.
You can read more about the emotional side of this process–including why the writers who are most prepared are often the most anxious–in our post on submission anxiety and why your nerves are actually a good sign. And if you want to make sure your query is as strong as it can be before the next round, our piece on how to write a query letter that makes agents feel something walks through exactly what we see working.
The right agent is out there. They’re reading, hoping something in their inbox surprises them. And that something could be yours.
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