I don't know if it's great or the most torturous thing in the world, but I've gotten two agents to look at my manuscript.  The first wanted to see the whole thing after reading the first three chapters, told me it "brightened her day" and she could relate to my character and story, and then said she's leaving the business.  The second told me that I was a good writer, had an "interesting and ground-breaking story", but didn't think it would work in his market (he was a Christian literary agent). 

Now here's my problem with both these "no thank yous."  If my book's so freaking great, why wouldn't the agents have represented it?  And if it sucks, why would they have spent the energy to tell me what a great story-teller I am? 

This is why I'm thinking about a professional editing service, to get some honest critiques.  Honestly, the encouragement is nice, but it still leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I'm chasing a pointless dream.

Erika

 

There are a couple of different issues here.  The first is that agents can like a book but not feel that they would be the best choice to sell it.  If someone isn't comfortable with being able to sell it, then you're better off with them NOT representing it because they won't do as good a job as someone who goes out all excited and eager to pitch the book to the editor.  Sales is really tough to do if you have any reservations at all about the product, and that does impact how the person selling comes across.  What you don't want is an unenthusastic agent shopping it everywhere without any luck, then you finally looking for a new agent, except that all the publishers have already seen the book.

The second agent made a personal decision that had nothing to do with your book.

The fact that they even took the time to give you comments is very promising. 

The second issue is professional editing.  That's not going to give you an honest opinion.  You'd be paying to have some correct grammar, typos, and other basic writing mistakes.  They're not going to tell you that you have too many characters in the first chapter or that there's no reader orientation in this scene and that scene.  Find a critique group and join it.  And do lots of critiques because you'll learn how to improve your own work by making comments on everyone else's.  If you can't find a critique group, start one.  Don't waste your money on professional editing.  You could easily spend a lot of money and still not be able to sell the novel.  Critique groups, on the other hand, don't cost much, if anything.

Finally, it just simply is hard to get published.  If it was easy everyone would be published.  Sometimes it just takes a lot of time, a lot of rejections, and sometimes it takes writing a new book or learning an additional skill.  I have a friend, Adam Meyer, who has his second book coming out next year.  He spent years submitting  private detective novels and getting rejected.  He got tired of being rejected and tried a completely different type of book, and that was the one that sold.  Writer Steve Berry wrote ten books before he learned all the skills he needed to get published, and now he's a best selling thriller author.  Every writer goes through what you're going through.  They submit their books, get rejected, pick themselves, and try again.  If you want to be published, perseverence and determination is key because it's going to take a lot of time.

In the meantime, you should already be writing book two.  Book one might not sell, but book two might.

Linda is correct that an "editor" will only put your book into good grammatical shape, however there are people, many quite good, who critique as well as edit, and they will tell you whether you have too many characters or chapter three lags or whether your plot is not compelling enough. The question comes down to how much you are willing to pay and choosing the person who is right for you. When it comes to book length many of the best critiquers will critique a sample for little or no fee so that you can each decide if you are right for each other.

Of course, part of the problem in posting in these forums is that you will get a variety of answers. I personally don't find critique groups all that helpful. In most cases you end up getting a bunch of differing opinions from folks who know no more than you about what will sell your novel.

If you are seriously interested in a professional critique there are people out there who have worked in the publishing industry. My own opinion is that it can be well worth it, especially for your first book. As with anything you need to choose carefully and get recommendations if possible, same as you would do if you wanted to get your roof repaired or your car fixed.

Erika wrote:

I don't know if it's great or the most torturous thing in the world, but I've gotten two agents to look at my manuscript.  The first wanted to see the whole thing after reading the first three chapters, told me it "brightened her day" and she could relate to my character and story, and then said she's leaving the business.  The second told me that I was a good writer, had an "interesting and ground-breaking story", but didn't think it would work in his market (he was a Christian literary agent).  Now here's my problem with both these "no thank yous."  If my book's so freaking great, why wouldn't the agents have represented it?  And if it sucks, why would they have spent the energy to tell me what a great story-teller I am?  This is why I'm thinking about a professional editing service, to get some honest critiques.  Honestly, the encouragement is nice, but it still leaves me scratching my head and wondering if I'm chasing a pointless dream. Erika Yeah, this is a shame. You have to remember though, that you need to present you book like a product. What makes your book marketable, and that kind of thing. It is a product, and you need to go about it that way, but I think it is great that you got compliments on your writing. Keep Up The Faith, Ethan