Rejection letters: they suck! But also they're not the end of the world! (Trust us, we've been there. Repeatedly.) Join us for a loosey-goosey conversation about what you can learn from form and personalized rejections from literary agents, the agony of being ghosted, and why your "dream agent" might not actually be your dream agent at all. Kirk shares war stories from 200+ queries, Meagan credits her law degrees for her cold dead heart, and we debate whether the worst icon on QueryTracker is that red frowny face (yes).

PLUS Hot Goss about an agent who accused a writer of using AI and shared their manuscript with colleagues to gossip about it (!!!). Do we have to tap the "unless there's an literal prompt left in the text, maybe don't accuse a writer of using AI if you don't know better" sign again? Because between us we have twenty fingers. We can keep tapping.

Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We’re glad you’re here, even if none of us know what we’re doing.

Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty.

Show email: [email protected]

Bluesky: @[email protected].

Threads: @badlitfriends

Instagram: @badlitfriends

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends

Website: badlitfriends.com

Show notes:

Rejection letter drama on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PubTips/comments/1qjhidt/discussion_very_strange_response_from_an_agent/

Reddit post about whether Mia Ballard's Shy Girl was written by AI: https://www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/comments/1q8so32/shy_girl_by_mia_ballard_does_anyone_else_think/