Purgatory's Pit of Doom

Leigh I agree with your friend. Without the movement it's hard to imagine what the character's are doing / how they are reacting throughout the conversation and it makes them seem like they are just standing there stiffly and maybe blinking on occasion.

Hey, pitizens. I'm never gonna catch up. Got back from traveling without internet yesterday, just in time for... the power to go out at home. Seriously, thirty minutes after I walked in. Fortunately, it's back this morning. But oy.

Mornin', Pit

{{{Ink}}}

I just started querying, sent a total of 6 this past Friday and yesterday and I already want to quit even if I haven't gotten any responses.

That's life in The Pit.

(((Steve))) Don't quit!!!!

I am also frustrated by nonresponses. Fully 60 percent of my queries got no response, even by agents who say they respond to all queries and those who seem to respond to most/many queries. I'd say query the quick responders, but some of them have skipped me and others are practically autorejectors, so that tells you nothing except your email account is working.

Hi Ink! We missed you.

(((Steve))) What is with all the non-responders lately? Very annoying.

{{Ink}} ACK shitty deal!!

{{Steve}} you have my sympathy

Yeah Snappy - those no responders are hard on the head. I agree with Kellion that sometimes those lightning fast responders are pretty much autojectors.

But hey, at least you *do* know your email is working. Um...that's it, that's all I've got for the silver lining of the maggot cloud. The non-responders...I blame two things. The morons who can't take a rejection like a grown up. And the agents who aren't smart enough to figure out how to send rejections from a dead drop email box, where they'll never have to read the bitter ramblings of the aforementioned morons.

Well, I feel better now (sorta). Got my unofficial first rejection. I say unofficial because the agent is a non-responder, but she tweets when she is through queries by a certain date. Sent a revenge query.

Oh, I'm not sad about it, which is a good thing. I've channeled Gr33k S3aman and said, FUCK OFF!

LOL that author is the hero of all Pitizens! Still {{Steve}}

You know, things would be so much easier if sub guidelines were more streamlined. This one only responds if they want to bother, that one SAYS they always respond, this one wants you to contact them if you get an offer even if they just have your query. It's mind boggling.

What really gets to me are those agents that say 'only query one agent at this agency / only one agent at this agency at a time' (the latter of which I think is fair) BUT what if you get bottlenecked by querying one of those non responding agents? You're stuck (for a while) waiting and waitign and waiting on an R that may never come before you can query another agent at that agency. Infuriating!

That is what makes querying so maddening. The unending research to make sure you're following all the guidelines. It sometimes makes me wish I were the sort of careless jerk who just sends out 100 identical email queries, regardless of guidelines.

ALERT: Wallowing Pitizen Ahead!

I have nowhere else to really wallow, so I'm just gonna do it here. You can look away. In fact, I kinda recommend it.

My boss is being a douche. I'm incredibly behind at work, have looming deadlines and no will to do the work.

My crazy sister is a moron who expects everyone to bail her out.

My good sister is in danger of losing her job due to school district budget cuts.

My boyfriend is kind of a jerk. (Or his depression makes him seem that way. And I don't know what's worse. Me being depressed or having to watch him be depressed.)

My mother is trying to kill herself. She weighs 350 fucking pounds and refuses to do anything about it. Her older sister died as a hoarder recluse weighing over 800 pounds.

I am also apparently an idiot, who is desperately hunting a second job to avoid ending up in bankruptcy. And frankly, I could stand to lose 50 pounds.

My house remodeling isn't done and I'm so tired of it.

And writing? God, just kill me already. Don't I have enough humiliation and rejection in my life?

Red I know it's a huge faux pas and I've never done it but I can understand those writers who say Fuck It and send one email to every agent they think may be interested in their book. It'll piss tons of people off and I doubt anyone would respond but...yeah...I can understand the frustration that would lead to one doing that.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{red}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

I can't squeeze you hard enough. The saying 'when it rains it pours' has nothing on what you're going through right now

(((Red))) Wallowing always allowed here. I'm so sorry you're burdened with being the one who others lean on when you need to lean yourself.

Querying for me has been miserable, dejecting, humbling, but there's always a chance that something good will happen, so that's why I do it.

ETA: I don't know if customizing queries does a darn thing. I've had requests off totally generic ones and had highly customized client referrals with pages, synopsis, credit report, horoscope, and notarized birth certificate receive no response. If they like the idea, they will respond.

{{{{{{Red}}}}} This is definitely the place to wallow.

That's what I'm trying to remind myself of: I *could* get an agent that way. And yes, it's soooo tempting to just say FUCK IT! and send a bunch of queries. Alas, I would have to unknow what I know about the agent/query game.

Querying for most of us IMHO is one of those damned if you do damned if you don't situations.

Kellion TOTALLY agree with you about personalized queries. They are so hard to do and time consuming and the R's for those come just as fast, but feel like more of a slap because of all the work you put into a query for an agent to glance at for 30 seconds and say 'pass'

kellion92 said:

ETA: I don't know if customizing queries does a darn thing. I've had requests off totally generic ones and had highly customized client referrals with pages, synopsis, credit report, horoscope, and notarized birth certificate receive no response. If they like the idea, they will respond.

Click to expand...

*snort! I missed that on the first go-round. Yes, well, did you send your long form birth certificate? That's the only one good enough for Don@ld Tr&mp.

(((Red))) I'm so sorry. That sucks! All of it. Wallow away. Pitizens don't judge.

Oh crap! I sent the short form birth certificate. Well, that explains things.

PPTH Snapps, Pitizens judge ALL the time. Ourselves, hope, the quality of maggots we've been eating lately...the list goes on and on

Red, I <3 you. It's going to get better.

(((Steve))) You tell it to that R.

(((((Red))))) I'm so sorry you're dealing with so much. Wallow at will. That's why we're here.

Ink! That sucks about your power being out. I hate that.

(((Steve))) I'd rather have a real rejection than the "check me on twitter" status. Blargh.

(((Red))) Wallow. That is a ton to deal with and all of it sounds really emotionally draining. May you find the strength you need.

Curious about the query approach. I don't always personalize. I address it to a specific agent and add something about "I understand you are looking for X" but usually that is about it. It is tiring spending tons of time researching info only to get a form R in the end. Last time around I did the personalized approach for every query, but I don't think it netted me more requests. Often they were just nicer rejections?

Thanks for letting me wallow, all.

The weird thing is that I've had such mixed responses on personalized queries. I've done really personalized queries that netted me a 2 sentence form rejection. I've done totally form queries that netted me nice personalized rejections.

I did personalize the query that my agent got, but basically disregarded his caveat against first person narratives, and got an offer anyway. Sooo ... who knows?