This Business is Subjective

"This business is subjective."
"It only takes one agent."
"Don't take it personally."

You hear these things a lot when you start querying your novel.  This morning I got a form reject in my inbox.  It was the typical "Not what we're looking for, but best of luck" deal.  On a forum I post on another member pointed out it was hard to imagine one agent form rejecting what another flew out to meet me after reading.  The answer is that this business is subjective.

But it's easier to remind someone of this than to remember it when you get a form rejection in your inbox.  There are 5000 reasons that have nothing to do with your query that can get you the big R, or maybe your query needs work.  But regardless it only takes one person to love your manuscript, and the right person is going to call you at 8 pm with submission strategy ideas.  The wrong person is going to put you on the back-burner.

I'm about to embark on the next stage of this subjective process in the next few weeks: submission.  And I imagine I'll need to remind myself this business is subjective then too.  And then someday there will be reviews on goodreads and amazon.  The point is that while we want everyone to love our story, we have to love it the most in that unconditional, parental way.