Random Rejection: The Panettieri Agency, “Long Before Dawn”

After our previous “random acceptance” anomaly, we’re back in familiar territory, with a rejection letter from a literary agent I was hoping to get to represent Long Before Dawn:

Random Rejection: Sandra Dijkstra Agency, 1994

So one of the things I used to spend a lot of time on was trying to get a literary agent.  (I’ve had a grand total of three over the years, and none of them ever sold a single thing.  But that’s a different post …)

Here’s an exchange that’s pretty typical of how my interaction with a literary agent would go.  First I would send a query (possibly including sample chapters), and then I would get back something like this:

Random Rejection: “Leech Field”

So I’ve alluded to the fact that I have a file with a LOT of rejection letters in it. I thought it might be interesting to pull one at random from time to time and post it, so everyone can experience the fun of reading what I like to call “you suck” letters (even though they don’t generally actually say “you suck”). So here’s one from 2000, for a short story called “Leech Field”.