Hi Eisel,
Many thanks for approaching ______ Press with your [manuscript]. Our team has looked at your submission and unanimously agree that it is extremely well-written and will appeal to many. However, it is not a good fit for ______ Press and we cannot offer you a contract. [Our books] tend to be more "cozy" and cover subjects such as __________.
Forgive me, but with your background, I'm astonished that you are even seeking a publisher. It seems you have an impressive following already plus the knowledge and ability to forge your own way. When I wrote my first book eleven years ago, like you, I knocked on publishers' and agents’ doors and most didn’t even respond, and those that did weren’t interested. My book had won a professional (glowing) critique from [a mainstream publishing corporation] but even they weren’t interested. So I decided to self-publish and it turned out to be the best thing I ever did. Not only did my books hit the New York Times bestseller list several times […] but I also pocketed all the royalties instead of sharing it with agents and publishers, and continue to do so.
In those days, the competition was less fierce, maybe. However, self-published books were never even considered by most bookstores, whereas now our books can appear on all the big catalogues, whether self-published or not. And although thousands of new titles appear on Amazon every week, there is no reason why a good book can’t be discovered and perform well.
I highly recommend that you self-publish, […]
Good luck with whichever route you decide to take,
__________
