Diary of Being a Writer; Week 180

Fighting self-doubt, again.

More rejections came through over the last couple of weeks. And I was doing okay. Only a small amount of self-doubt had taken hold. But the request for a full manuscript could only buoy me up for so long. Weirdly the letter that got to me was this one;

I’m sorry, you have already sent this query to my colleague, and I cannot consider it. In the future, please submit to only one agent at a time.

I felt awful. I know not to do that. It is stated explicitly on all the agency rules of submission. How had I made this massive faux pas? I am not only keeping a spreadsheet of everyone I submit to, but Query Tracker, funnily enough, keeps track too. And yet, I had still submitted to two literary agents from the same agency. The best excuse I can come up with is that one is in Canada and the other is in America. But the same agency. I burnt two chances in one go.

Another one I wasted was one where I used my standard query letter. It is pretty similar each time. If there is anything I can add that is relevant, I do. But to be honest, I don’t know these people. I haven’t met them at a book event. I often haven’t read anything they represent. As much as I would like to, it just isn’t feasible. And when I have read authors they represent, I would feel embarrassed to say, “You…