The Daily Rejection

Oh, I bitch and moan a lot. It helps me cope. But I keep plugging away. I've told myself I'll be sufficiently odd-numbered-day optimistic tomorrow.

Also, La Shark's query indicator isn't up to the date I sent my explanation. It is entirely conceivable she hasn't seen it yet.

And I only have four form Rs for the fiction so far. The rewritten NF is about the same. That's next to nothing. I should stop whining.

These arguments will be persuasive to me in the morning.

c.e.---that's great feedback! If the constructive comments feel right to you, I say revise. If you feel it's okay as is, maybe let the suggestions sit for a bit as you mull them over.

K et al: a few agents who are on twitter periodically do #10queriesin10min and it's really illuminating. In the space of 140 characters (and less than a minute per query), they identify the genre/pass or request/very brief and general reason why. They go through A LOT of queries and get a fairly strong sense of a query or manuscript's appeal to them pretty quickly. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of their process.

Hathor--well, how about if I say I haven't YET done that? I'm sure I will.

Oh, and K, I wonder if we're hearing from the same people...I got a query R today too.

I hope Carleree is doing during her little break.

qdsb said:

c.e.---that's great feedback! If the constructive comments feel right to you, I say revise. If you feel it's okay as is, maybe let the suggestions sit for a bit as you mull them over.

K et al: a few agents who are on twitter periodically do #10queriesin10min and it's really illuminating. In the space of 140 characters (and less than a minute per query), they identify the genre/pass or request/very brief and general reason why. They go through A LOT of queries and get a fairly strong sense of a query or manuscript's appeal to them pretty quickly. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of their process.

Hathor--well, how about if I say I haven't YET done that? I'm sure I will.

Oh, and K, I wonder if we're hearing from the same people...I got a query R today too.

I hope Carleree is doing during her little break.

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I've been doing okay A couple form Rs, but more importantly, I read a fab YA book and am so inspired I might start writing again. Maybe. Tomorrow.

Q, I was at a conference where an agent said he could tell if he was interested in 5 sentence or less. This horrified the crowd, but I could completely understand. I look at my job. I have to evaluate clients, and after doing it for twenty years, I can size them up very fast. Am I wrong at times--absolutely. But I'm right more often than not. Given the volume agents deal with, I can't think of a way for them to take a lot of time with queries. Bummer for us, but that's how it goes.

Hathor--I hope things are looking brighter today.

Carleree--Yay for inspiration! Ever forward!

K--Yup. They do this for a living...their perceptions are finely honed. I do wish agents did use the "no response = no" policy, though. I do get that they're busy...but I like Janet Reid's point about how agents can set up form auto-replies. But...I don't live their lives, and they have to do what's best for their sanity.

Got an R on a partial today. It was kind--the gist was that it was fine work but didn't have that extra "it." Wow, these Rs on requests suck. And, glutton for punishment that I am, I went through my query list and marked a handful of non-responders. It's only been two weeks for most of them, but then I guess I can just be pleasantly surprised if I hear back.

This makes 3 Rs in 3 days. I'm going to go wallow in chocolate for a bit and maybe take a nap. I'm sure things will look better tomorrow.

Some good news and some partially good news. I received a full request from a second epublisher today--Yay! And an agent informed me she's interested, but they're closed to submissions. She encourages me to resub in Sept

it's the silence.

THE SILENCE I TELL YE!!!

qdsb said:

Hathor--I hope things are looking brighter today.

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No change as far as the writing is concerned. But I went to the dentist with no need for work (I'm such a dental weenie and the last time I had to have surgery), I convinced hubby to agree to buying Nats playoff tickets (not that he had a choice but he could have whined more), then the Nats won again. So the day isn't that bad.

Boo to Rs; yea for requests, positive feedback, inspiration, and chocolate wallows.
Edit: Boo to silence too...

Paul said:

it's the silence.

THE SILENCE I TELL YE!!!

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Isn't it funny...after 3 rejections in 3 days (one of those on a partial), I kind of long for the silence. Grass is always greener...

On schedule, my even-day depression is sinking in. I'm feeling no confidence in the fulls/partials I still have out. I'm sure they'll all end in Rs. I also get the feeling I need to go back and gut the MS with a "tear it all down and rebuild" revision. But perhaps I'm not thinking clearly...it is an even-numbered day, after all.

Hope everyone else is having a good day. We're due for some YESes around here.

Somedays, I tell myself that if I expect the R, I'll never be disappointed. Can't quite pull that off, though

Silence here as well. I'm considering an overhaul of my query, even though it's already been through QLH. The fact that out of 6 queries, the only request for pages has been from a one line pitch without the query, tells me something. I think. Or the sample is just too small. But I don't want to risk my somewhat small list of agents (not everyone reps historical women's fiction, esp that in the ancient world).

Sorry you're feeling doubt, qdsb -- but you have had an AMAZING start, it's got to pan out. Keep going. And thanks for the encouragement on my full R.

And Paul -- yes, IT'S THE SILENCE! Grrr.

Hathor, your start is similar to mine. Hahaha, I expected requests for pages right away. Isn't EVERYONE just as thrilled about ancient Sparta as I am? *puzzled* Hang in there.

Carleree - today is tomorrow, so I hope you've already gotten a few paragraphs written. (make sense? )

Kmarshall -- EXCELLENT news! YAY!

Hoping things look up soon for ALL of us!

Thanks, C.E. I'm debating about whether I should give in to the happy dance or put that guard wall up. I'm opting for happy for a day. After that, I need to reel it in. A little

Kmarshall said:

Thanks, C.E. I'm debating about whether I should give in to the happy dance or put that guard wall up. I'm opting for happy for a day. After that, I need to reel it in. A little

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I think a day of happy 'refills the well', as they say. Good choice. I'm going to put on my warrior face and send out another Q.

Sending new queries always makes me feel better. Puts the r's in the rear view mirror.

I'm trying to figure out if I should send out more queries or hold off to see if the ones I've sent pan out. If not, I may need to do some jiggering.

I still haven't heard back about my NF. Nice agent says it sounds interesting, but I started the story too early. I fixed that, and nice agent says good job. Only what is significance of my story, do similar things happen to others, are there solutions, etc., etc. I write back on Monday morning giving the answers. No response. I'm not sure if I should give it more time, write again in the assumption that an email went astray, or just learn to take a hint.

Is a story that bears on common experiences for students in special education (one out of seven) or otherwise doing poorly in school -- a tale that has a student over the years going from the bottom percentile to the top one -- truly so "small" no publisher will be interested?

My son once heard someone say, "No one cares for special ed students." Maybe that's true. Or people assume that their parents must all be illiterate; I mean, why else would their children have problems?

Sigh. Okay, off the soapbox.

A complicating factor is that I leave for vacation in three weeks. I'll be gone for three weeks and without my computer, although I suppose I might get email access from a hotel computer. So I'm not sure that sending a bunch of new queries is advisable right now.

Ancient Sparta -- sure. But you do know those manly men preferred boys, right?

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a book about Alcibiades myself. What a guy! I'd need a fresh take, though. Plenty of folks over the centuries have had the same idea.

Alcibiades would be an amazing MC for a story! My friend had him in a wonderful story that, to my chagrin, she abandoned. I'll never forgive her.

Actually, there's plenty of debate about those Spartans and their sexuality. Marriage was SO important to the culture - breeding warriors was the only way to keep the army big and strong - and there was a societal code of ostracizing "confirmed bachelors". Lots of room for interpretation in HF. My take is that people are people, and no society was homogeneous. Conveniently, I didn't address that issue directly in my story.

Hathor--special needs is a huge priority for schools. Its management and oversight is controversial, the students are either heroes or terrors, depending on your POV. But they do have a compelling journey and--if told right--will have readers cheering for them. I think there's a considerable market for it. The problem is--do editors and agents think so. We're all struggling with that. The key is to make a compelling enough case that they can't ignore it.

Ancient Sparta--well fantasy is coming alive again, thanks to Game of Thrones on HBO. True, Sparta isn't fantasy, per se, but much of season one of GoT isn't Lord of the Rings style fantasy. Its gritty realism. I picked up two books at BEA based on the ancient world--one about the Mongols and one whose story escapes me. The point is, publishers are putting it out. My guess, though, is that it has more to do with the underlying theme than the setting, or even genre.

Look at Harry Potter. Strip away the trappings, and what's the heart of the story. It's not about magic, it's an orphan boy's coming of age story--how he finds friends, learns to belong, and ultimately obtains peace and happiness. The Hunger Games is about oppression. It's no accident that children take center stage. They are the most vulnerable and powerless in any society. Granting them the power to overthrow a regime--that's psychological genius.

Shoot my own story, with all its big actions pieces, power-wielding gods, etc, is essentially about making choices, owning up to the mistakes, and accepting the consequences. When pitching, we all need to boil things down to those elements and present them in a gripping manner. Everything else, really, is window dressing. Insanely cool and beautiful, to be sure , but window dressing all the same. Right?

*waves* Hello all. I have little report. I finished reading the WIP but did not write anything because I now have to study for my new job.

Also, one of the first agents I had a request from has had my MS for 6 months and hasn't said a peep. I nudged a couple days ago and still nothing. So frustrated. I guess I have to give up on that one. Sent more queries, so something could happen in the meantime. Right?

Carleree, you got the job? Did I miss your announcement or was this your subtle way of telling us? Congrats! Sorry your nudge didn't accomplish anything. (Yet...it still might. Folks go on vacation, etc.)

Sparta -- didn't realize it was controversial. I thought the women were for creating new soldiers, but the emotional attachments were to young male companions. Oh well, the more you talk to people, the more you learn

I think there is a market for my book. But I'm not even getting to the point of people reading it to see how the topics are handled. I've run into this sentiment before -- "your potential market is too small" or "your story is too specific." I give the numbers and explain how the issues are general and affect regular ed kids too, but I just get the same conclusions repeated back to me. (I've also heard: "too depressing." But I have a success story, an amazingly happy ending.)

Everyone I talk to thinks I have an important story to tell. Everyone, that is, except for literary agents.

Congrats on the new job, Carleree~!

Stories about children fighting to succeed with the odds stacked against them sounds like a winner in any genre. When it's true, it's even more powerful. IMHO

qdsb said:

Isn't it funny...after 3 rejections in 3 days (one of those on a partial), I kind of long for the silence. Grass is always greener...

On schedule, my even-day depression is sinking in. I'm feeling no confidence in the fulls/partials I still have out. I'm sure they'll all end in Rs. I also get the feeling I need to go back and gut the MS with a "tear it all down and rebuild" revision. But perhaps I'm not thinking clearly...it is an even-numbered day, after all.

Hope everyone else is having a good day. We're due for some YESes around here.

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LOl. yes. i crave for rejection (ie a response), then silence, then rejection, then...

but this is on a full, and it's kinda a biggy so...

Kmarshall said:

Stories about children fighting to succeed with the odds stacked against them sounds like a winner in any genre. When it's true, it's even more powerful. IMHO

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May I quote you on that

I don't know. I even had some professors look at what I wrote to (1) certify I wasn't a nut and (2) discuss the issues illuminated by my manuscript. Didn't help (except I do like to read what they said when I'm feeling down).

I'll keep plugging away at this. I'm just in an even-numbered-day, I've-been-working-on-this-project-for-how-long mood.

And my querying email (the non-dinosaur-dork one) is working. Got a form R on my fiction.

But Carleree has a job, so the universe does sometimes get it right.

Big smiles. I don't have the job yet. They only started calling my references today. My old boss called this afternoon to say he was thrilled to give me a glowing recommendation and could I come back to work for him, too. Which I can't, but still, nice to be wanted.

On the 27th I go for a job shadowing day to see if the job is a good fit for everyone. Great pay and amazing opportunity. I really applied on a whim and am kind of shocked I got an interview. And that was scary too. No one mentioned the written exam or the panel interview before I got there. But I'm thinking they don't ask you to job shadow if they don't want you to take the job. Right? Right? They said I could start in September when my kids are in school full time, if everything checks out. Which it will.

But that also means no time to write. Sigh. Something had to give. Maybe dream agent over the pond will finally read my pitch and chapter outline so I don't have to write a new novel ASAP to get this career off the ground.

*sticks head out of editing hole* YAY CARLEREE! Hang in - you can have both! *lowers self back down into hole*