If you’ve been submitting your manuscript and receiving rejection letters, you may eventually start wondering what you’re doing wrong.
Maybe your book isn’t good enough.
Maybe you’re not a good enough writer.
Maybe everyone else knows something you don’t.
Maybe you should give up.
Stop.
A rejection doesn’t necessarily mean any of those things.
I’ve worked with a small traditional publisher for years, and one thing I’ve learned is that there are many reasons a manuscript gets rejected. Some of them have to do with the manuscript itself. Some have to do with the submission. Some have to do with the publisher. And some have absolutely nothing to do with whether the book is good.
Publishing is a subjective business.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention when your manuscript is rejected. If you keep getting the same kind of rejection, you may have something to learn.
So let’s look at some of the more common reasons manuscripts get rejected—and, more importantly, which ones you can actually do something about.
1. The Manuscript Isn’t Ready Yet
This is probably the most frustrating reason for a writer because you may genuinely believe your manuscript is finished.
You’ve written the book.
You’ve revised it.
You’ve read it so many times you don’t want to look at it anymore.
You are ready to be done.
But being tired of your manuscript isn’t the same thing as being finished with your manuscript.
Sometimes the story still needs work.
Maybe the characters aren’t fully developed. Maybe the plot loses momentum in the middle. Maybe the ending doesn’t quite work. Maybe there are scenes that don’t contribute anything to the story. Maybe the dialogue isn’t believable.
Or maybe there are simply too many errors.
Publishers don’t expect perfection, but they do expect you to submit your best work.
If the manuscript still requires extensive work before an editor can begin the publishing process, it may be rejected because the publisher doesn’t have the time or resources to do that work for you.
This is one reason I strongly recommend having someone else read your manuscript before you submit it.
2. The Story Isn’t Working
Sometimes the problem isn’t the writing.
It’s the story.
A manuscript can have beautiful sentences and still not work as a novel.
Perhaps there isn’t enough conflict.
Perhaps the protagonist doesn’t have a clear goal.
Perhaps the plot is really a series of events rather than a story in which one event causes another.
Perhaps the stakes never become high enough.
Perhaps the ending doesn’t resolve the central conflict.
These problems can be difficult to see when you’re the person who wrote the story because you know everything that is supposed to happen.
Your reader doesn’t.
This is where a good synopsis can be incredibly useful.
When you reduce your 80,000-word novel to a couple of pages, weaknesses in the story often become much easier to see.
3. The Opening Doesn’t Grab the Reader
Your opening matters.
An editor may read hundreds of submissions. The first pages need to make the reader want to continue.
That doesn’t mean you have to begin with an explosion, a murder, or someone running for their life.
It does mean that something needs to make the reader curious.
Who is this character?
What is happening?
Why should I care?
What question has the story raised that I want answered?
A beautiful description of the sunrise may be beautifully written, but if nothing is happening and there is no reason for me to keep reading, I’m probably going to keep reading something else.
Your opening should make the reader want the next page.
4. The Characters Aren’t Compelling
Characters don’t have to be likable.
They do have to be interesting.
I need to understand what they want, what they’re afraid of, what motivates them, and what is standing in their way.
One of the problems I see is characters who exist primarily to make the plot happen.
The protagonist needs to go somewhere, so the author makes them go.
The protagonist needs to discover something, so suddenly they discover it.
The villain needs to do something terrible, so the villain does something terrible.
But why?
Characters need motivation.
Their choices should affect the story, and the story should affect them.
If your characters aren’t making meaningful choices, you may have a plot problem disguised as a character problem.
5. The Plot Is Too Complicated—or Not Complicated Enough
There is no magic number of characters, plotlines, or subplots that makes a novel work.
But there is such a thing as too much.
If I have to keep a spreadsheet beside me to remember who everyone is, that’s a problem.
Too many characters can make a story difficult to follow. Too many subplots can pull the reader away from the central story. Too many twists can make a plot feel contrived.
On the other hand, a story can also be too thin.
If the central conflict could be resolved in three chapters, stretching it to eighty thousand words isn’t going to make it a novel.
The story needs enough substance to sustain the reader’s interest, but not so much that the central story gets buried.
6. The Manuscript Doesn’t Fit the Publisher
This one is important because it may have nothing to do with the quality of your manuscript.
If a publisher doesn’t publish your genre, don’t submit to them.
If they publish romance but don’t publish erotica, don’t submit erotica.
If they publish adult fiction but don’t publish young adult, don’t submit YA.
This sounds obvious, but publishers receive submissions that don’t fit their stated guidelines all the time.
Research before you submit.
Know what the publisher publishes.
Know who their readers are.
Know whether your book belongs on their list.
A wonderful manuscript submitted to the wrong publisher is still the wrong submission.
7. The Publisher Already Has Something Similar
You may have written a wonderful book and still receive a rejection because the publisher has already acquired something similar.
Publishers don’t want five books on their list that compete directly with one another.
Maybe they just published a novel about a woman who inherits a haunted bed-and-breakfast.
Maybe they already have a similar mystery scheduled.
Maybe they’ve acquired another book that is too close to yours in subject, audience, or concept.
That doesn’t mean your book isn’t good.
It means they already have that particular space on their list filled.
This is one reason I keep saying that publishing is about fit.
8. The Publisher Doesn’t Think It Can Sell the Book
This one is harder to hear.
Publishing is a business.
A publisher has to believe there are enough readers who will buy the book to make publishing it financially worthwhile.
That doesn’t mean a book has to be a guaranteed bestseller.
It does mean the publisher needs to see a market.
Sometimes a manuscript is beautifully written and well executed but the publisher doesn’t know how to position it.
Sometimes the market is already crowded.
Sometimes the publisher has tried similar books before and they didn’t sell.
Sometimes the publisher simply doesn’t see enough potential readers.
This is not necessarily a criticism of your writing.
It’s a business decision.
9. The Manuscript Doesn’t Match the Query
Your query makes a promise.
Your manuscript needs to deliver on that promise.
If your query describes a fast-paced psychological thriller but the manuscript spends the first hundred pages exploring the protagonist’s childhood, there is a problem.
If the query makes the book sound like a romance but the romance doesn’t actually become central to the story, there is a problem.
If your hook sounds exciting but the manuscript doesn’t live up to it, the editor is going to notice.
Your query and your manuscript should feel like they’re describing the same book.
10. The Genre Isn’t Clear
This is becoming increasingly important as genres and subgenres become more specific.
If you tell me your novel is a mystery, I expect there to be a mystery.
If you tell me it’s a romance, I expect the romantic relationship to be central.
If you tell me it’s a thriller, I expect tension and escalating stakes.
Readers have expectations.
That doesn’t mean you can’t do something unusual. Please do.
But you need to understand the rules before you break them.
Know your genre.
Know your subgenre.
Read books that are being published now in that category.
Then decide where your book belongs.
11. The Writing Needs More Work
Sometimes the writing itself is the problem.
That can mean grammar and punctuation, but it can also mean much more than that.
The prose may be difficult to follow.
The dialogue may sound unnatural.
The point of view may shift unexpectedly.
There may be too much exposition.
The writing may tell the reader everything instead of allowing the story to unfold.
The sentences may all have the same rhythm.
There may simply be too much writing.
And sometimes the writing is technically fine but doesn’t make me want to keep reading.
Good writing isn’t just correct writing.
Good writing makes the reader want to know what happens next.
12. The Manuscript Is Too Similar to Something Already on the Market
There’s a difference between writing in a popular genre and writing a book that feels like a copy of something that has already been successful.
Readers enjoy familiar elements. That’s why genres and tropes exist.
But your book still needs to bring something of its own to the table.
You don’t need to invent an entirely new kind of story.
You do need your own characters, your own voice, your own perspective, and your own reason for telling this particular story.
13. You Didn’t Follow the Submission Guidelines
This one is entirely avoidable.
If the publisher asks for the first three chapters, don’t send the entire manuscript.
If they ask for a synopsis, include a synopsis.
If they ask for a Word document, don’t send a PDF.
If they say they don’t accept simultaneous submissions, don’t submit simultaneously.
Read the submission guidelines.
Then read them again before you hit send.
Not following directions tells an editor that you either didn’t do your research or don’t pay attention to instructions.
Neither is a good first impression.
14. The Publisher’s List Is Full
This is one writers don’t always think about.
Publishers have limited resources.
They have a certain number of books they can acquire and publish each year. They have budgets. They have production schedules. They have editors, designers, marketers, and sales teams who can only handle so many books.
A publisher may love your manuscript and still not be able to take it.
I’ve seen this happen.
Sometimes the answer is simply, “We don’t have room.”
There’s not much you can do about that.
Find another publisher.
15. It’s Just Not the Right Fit
This is probably the hardest one to explain.
Sometimes an editor reads a manuscript and doesn’t connect with it.
Another editor might love it.
That’s the subjective part of publishing.
Editors are readers too. We have preferences.
We have things we love and things we don’t.
Two publishers can read exactly the same manuscript and reach completely different conclusions.
That doesn’t mean one of them is wrong.
It means publishing involves human beings.
What Can You Control?
This is the part I want you to remember.
You can’t control whether an editor likes your story.
You can’t control what’s already on a publisher’s list.
You can’t control the market.
You can’t control whether a publisher has room for your book.
But you can control a lot.
You can:
- write the best book you can
- learn your craft
- revise your manuscript
- get honest feedback
- understand your genre
- research publishers
- follow submission guidelines
- write a strong query
- write a clear synopsis
- submit to publishers who actually publish what you’ve written
Do those things.
Then submit.
What If You Keep Getting Rejected?
Pay attention to patterns.
One rejection doesn’t tell you much.
Ten rejections that say nothing more than “not a fit” may simply mean you haven’t found the right publisher.
But if you’re consistently getting full manuscript requests and then rejections, that’s worth examining.
It may mean the query is working but something in the manuscript isn’t.
If you’re not getting requests at all, look at the query, the opening pages, your publisher or agent research, and whether you’re clearly communicating what your book is about.
Rejection can be information if you pay attention to it.
Final Thoughts
I know rejection is hard.
You’ve spent months or years writing your book. You’ve revised it. You’ve worried over every sentence. You finally work up the courage to send it out—and someone says no.
It hurts.
But don’t automatically translate “no” into “your book is bad.”
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes the manuscript needs more work.
That’s not a terrible thing. It means you know what to work on.
But sometimes the manuscript is good and the answer is still no.
Wrong genre.
Wrong publisher.
Wrong timing.
Too similar to another book.
No room on the list.
Not the right fit.
Publishing is a subjective business.
Your job is to make your manuscript as strong as you can, learn as much as you can about the publishing business, find the right people to submit to, and keep going.
And if you keep getting the same rejection, don’t just send the manuscript to another publisher and hope for a different answer.
Stop.
Look at the work.
Figure out what you can learn.
Revise if necessary.
Then try again.
That’s how you turn rejection into part of the process instead of letting it become the end of the process.