Just Because You’re Not Getting Manuscript Requests Doesn’t Mean You’re a Bad Writer

Let’s talk about that thing all writers need, especially when our careers are new and fragile: validation. It’s the reason we’re terrified to share our writing with other people. It’s the reason we enter contests and send out query letters and are anxious to read our own reviews. We’re wondering whether our writing is good enough. When you’re not getting manuscript requests or winning contests or getting reviews on an article or book, it makes it just a tad harder to justify moving forward as a writer.

You can write for a long long time with little to no positive return, and gradually, the voice asking “what’s the point” becomes tentatively louder. Your own self-image starts to suffer. You remember all those people who told you to “follow your dream.” An easy thing to say, you think, when you don’t know whether or not I suck at what I thought was my dream.

I’m hesitant to admit this, but to help prove my point, I’m going to anyway: the time between completing my first novel to the time I had my first manuscript request was twenty-one years.

I think this is a much longer return than most writers go through, and of course I was pre-high school when I completed that first novel; but in all that time, I never stopped writing or doing writing-related activities, so I can’t use a long career break as an excuse. I think I won a couple minor contests in high school. During college and afterward, I entered contests and finished novels and wrote queries, but no one ever showed interest. I kept writing anyway, because it was all I knew and it was all I wanted for myself.

Everything about being a writer was stressful, but damnit, I liked it and I was good at it.

Except… was I? Whose opinion on that did I have except my own, and those of my college professors?

I kept writing. As I got older and took my craft more seriously, I went on big writing retreats where I made huge leaps and participated in critique groups. I took classes and listened to podcasts and made connections with other hopeful authors like myself. I self-published my first novel. I was asked to contribute to a serialized writing project by a friend. I entered Angry Robot’s Open Door contest with my newest novel. I still hadn’t won any contests or had any manuscript requests—I still hadn’t received that long-sought after validation—but I hadn’t given up. I was still in the trenches after all these years.

Then I entered Pitch Wars in 2018 and something extraordinary happened. I received my first manuscript request. That’s right. My first one ever. The mentor who requested it told me he expected my entry to be popular and that it had been in the top 3 of his 211. No one had ever, ever, said anything like this about my writing, much less someone in the professional world.

And he was right; just a couple days later, I received a partial manuscript request from another mentor. I had to wait a total of six weeks before I’d find out whether I’d been chosen by a mentor—someone who would work with me on my novel for several months, then help pitch it to agents. I knew I probably wouldn’t get picked. But for the first time, I’d received validation.

And here’s where my story takes a crazy twist. Eight days before finding out whether I’d get chosen as a Pitch Wars mentee, I was obsessively checking my email (as one does when waiting on potentially life-changing news) when an email from Angry Robot Books arrived in my inbox. The subject line was Offer for Shrouded Loyalties. It was eleven months since I’d sent my novel into their Open Door contest, and I’d forgotten all about it. Oh, and it happened to be my tenth wedding anniversary.

From the time I wrote my first novel to getting my first manuscript request: 21 years.

From the time I got my first manuscript request to getting an offer by a publisher: 34 days.

Once I had the publisher’s offer in hand, I got four manuscript requests from agents based on my query within six days. I ended up with three agent offers, and signed with the one who’d represented one of the comp titles in my query letter! I did not get chosen for Pitch Wars. But, as my husband jokingly said, “I think you won the war.”

In conclusion, it took me an insanely long time to get validation for my writing. But then, when it happened, it happened insanely fast. And it happened because I kept writing and kept pushing to learn more and try harder and do better. I treated writing as a career rather than a hobby, and devoted everything I had to it even when I had no validation that my writing was good.

So here’s the thing: if you’re giving it all you have and interacting with the community and getting feedback and improving and, above all, not giving up, then take it from me – you are good. These are the things that make you good, whether you’re getting manuscript requests yet or not. If it’s something that defines who you are, stay in those trenches. You might be mere inches from seeing the sun, and not even realize it.

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Reese Hogan loves nothing more than creating broken relationships in broken worlds. With a Bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in journalism, Hogan has spent the last twenty years honing her craft by taking classes, listening to podcasts, and attending writing workshops and critique groups. She is passionate about music, especially alternative and punk rock, and believes that art can reach out in a way no other form of communication can. She lives with her family in New Mexico.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips