Would a re-query be like high school all over again?

The seventh in series of blog posts for my 8th grade students about the process of trying to publish my YA historical novel.

As the rejections come in while I revise my YA historical fiction, I wondered if writers ever resubmitted a query with the same agent even after an initial rejection. I don't know the rules--written or unwritten. Would resubmitting immediately earmark me as that guy. Blacklisted across the publishing industry because I acted like the high school boy who couldn't take rejection from the girl of his dreams.

Isn't a rejection email more than enough of a hint? If I queried an agent a second time after making significant changes to my manuscript, would friends of these literary agents start hanging out by my locker, or car, to tell me, "beat it, she's not interested."

An answer to my question came via Twitter. I follow YA authors, literary agents, and editors on Twitter. Often, I find valuable discussions or links to useful articles on writing or publishing. Yesterday, I stumbled across the hashtag #LitChatBetsy and followed it for a few minutes. A literary agent (who happens to represent the kind of YA book I am writing) was answering questions live.

So, the lesson here is that rejection, or a temporary failure, is only permanent if you let it be permanent. 

Stick with it. 

As I keep working at getting better, I still have hope and a goal in sight.




P.S. Students have been reading my posts about rejections from literary agents, and one asked, "I don't mean any offense by this but were you rejected a lot in high school or something?"