Same Old Song and Dance

I thought I'd go through my list of rejection letters today (those that I still have around -- the responses via snail mail were long ago trashed) and look at the reasoning for my rejection thus far. Let's go!

1. "I don’t feel it is one for me."
2. "We’re afraid your project does not seem right for our list."
3. "I suspect I wouldn't be the best fit."
4. "I’m afraid this isn’t for me."
5. "Unfortunately your book does not seem like one we could successfully represent at this time."
6. "I'm afraid your work is not the right fit for us at this time, and we encourage you to continue editing and querying other agencies."
7. "I’m sorry to say that we didn’t think it was the right fit for our list, so we have decided to pass." (This one came from an agent who read the full thing, too.)
8. "I don't think I'd be the best match in this instance."
9. "We can assure you that your query was given every consideration, however, we are unable to offer representation at this time."
10. "Unfortunately, however, this project doesn’t sound right for me."
11. "After careful review, I have decided that the book you propose is not one I feel I could successfully represent, and thus, I will not be able to work with you on this project."
12. "I read and consider each query carefully and while yours is not exactly what I am looking for,  I would certainly encourage you  keep trying."
13. "It is not a good fit for me, but I wish you the best of luck."
14. "I regret to say that I don’t feel that I’m the most appropriate agent for your work."

Almost all of these were followed up with "This is a highly subjective business, and this is only one opinion. Good luck, send out more letters, etc., etc."

I only had one response -- which I'm not going to print in full here -- that had anything helpful to say.

It almost seems unfair that we labor over a project for however long it takes to write it (two years in my case), and then spend a significant chunk of time researching literary agents and finding out about their tastes, pet peeves, favorite colors, the alignment of the stars at the precise moment of their birth, and their preferred letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, only to be dismissed with the exact same response 95% of the time.

I absolutely recognize that we only have one project to worry about while agents have 15,000 per year to consider. I completely understand that they are only one person dealing with a deluge of email, and that there's often just one X factor about the novel that's not clicking for them. I know this, I understand this, I sympathize with the amount of work they have to do -- but my book is not just a number to me. I wish it were treated more than that sometimes.