How to get your query or proposal accepted

Do your queries and proposals come back rejected? Do you receive form letters giving you vague reasons why your work isn’t acceptable?

Have you considered…changing something?

If your work gets rejected without specific reasons, it might be time to try something different–to do something different.

In the world of personal growth and self-improvement there’s a common saying: Don’t do the same thing and expect different results. The same holds true when it comes to sending out a query letter or proposal that isn’t winning you an assignment or a contract.

That’s why many agents don’t send out a proposal in bulk. A simultaneous submission may mean you lose the chance to submit a different–better–proposal to additional publishers after you discover what you had originally prepared  didn’t work with the first two or three (or 10 or 15) to which you sent it.That’s also why you may not want to send a simultaneous query letter to agents or to book or magazine publishers. This affords you the chance to rework it if what you have been doing doesn’t achieve the result you desire.

I’ll say it again: Don’t do the same thing and expect different results. If your query or proposal isn’t getting the results you want–a sale–rewrite, reangle, find a new pitch, play up the benefits, change something! Then see if your result don’t change as well.