The Daily Rejection

Ugh, I feel you on having a partial since Nov. I've got both a full and a partial from then, and it's brutal.

I'm focusing on my new job that starts right after Memorial Day instead of stressing over all the pages I've got out. I find myself in the very odd position of having to go clothes shopping, since I wear jeans in my current gig and that won't cut it at the new place. I haven't bought clothes for myself since my kid was born--she kind of needed them more since she keeps growing. And now I'm not supposed to feel guilty since it's for work. Ha. Hahahaha. I realized this past Sunday that I was physically incapable of buying a pair of shoes for myself over $20 without breaking into cold sweats of guilt. I think I may need to buy something stupidly expensive just to get over that first hurdle.

Yeah, it's funny how you have in your mind an idea of what something should cost and you don't want to go over that. Hubs had no problem with a fancy stone countertop. But a few extra bucks for a soft-close toilet seat -- no way! Maybe it sounded too girly. Eh, I can always tell him it would make a spiffy anniversary present. After nearly thirty years, every conceivable gift idea tends to get used up

There are plenty stupidly expensive things out there to get you over the hump. How about some fabulous kitchen tile?

You and shoes -- you sound like my husband. We have money. He will not buy shoes. He repairs them, over and over. The shoe-repair person knows him well. He keeps repairing them even when they begin looking rather shabby. "But they still fit! They're so comfortable now." (I figure I have job security.)

Actually, he wears everything until it falls apart, then sadly gives it up. At least by a decade into our marriage, I was no longer laundering items that his mother had shown nametags into. (No, that wasn't a joke.)

Maybe that's why we could afford the countertop.

LOL. At least I don't take my Payless specials in for repair, I guess. I'm just so used to looking at the cost of everything that actually making enough money to NOT have to do that is odd. Mind, we're not rich now or anything, but spending $90 on a decent pair of boots isn't going to keep me from paying the cable bill.

The kitchen tile is in the plans, never fear. I'm sick of that old green "marble" floor in the kitchen. Spent Mother's Day at Lowe's looking at carpet and tile, even. Well, that and those really nice washers and dryers that have more technology than my computer. Those I definitely don't need. But they're so shiny....

Yeah, I understand the "it's cool, but is it X dollars cool" dilemma. Like is having a completely integrated dishwasher (looks like a cabinet) worth $700 more than an almost integrated one (you see a rectangle with the display at the top, the rest has a front with your cabinet material)? Our answer was "no."

Besides, got to save whatever I can for dream tub. That decision still looms. I don't think my dear life partner realizes how much it would cost yet.

It does help to look at expensive stuff, though. When you buy, it seems like you're saving money (if you don't think too critically )

You want $90 boots. Find some that are on sale for $90. You'd almost be making money, right?

Well, we're having another marathon meeting with our contractor and designer this afternoon. I'm hoping they won't throw up their hands, claim I'm too anal to deal with ("no amount of money is worth dealing with you"), and walk away before we sign the contracts. Nope, I'm not the least bit paranoid.

Hathor, I've decided you're officially my good luck charm. Any time I start talking about my kitchen tiles with you, I get a request for a full!

Of course, the one today makes more active reads than I want to count. Frankly? Enough folks are reading that if one of them doesn't bite then there's some fundamental flaw with the story. Odds aren't good anyone will ever want to touch it if none of these guys do.

Scary stuff. The query is obviously doing it's job, as are my first few pages. So the only thing that I think would stop this from making it is marketability or some issue with the relatability of the MC. Neither of which I can fix. Definitely need some distractions at this point. Maybe the floor will get replaced a lot sooner than I think...

Hello, all. I haven't been here in awhile because I was pretty much done querying the last manuscript. I just started querying the new one about two and a half weeks ago. I went through QLH, had some wonderful beta readers, and started querying.

I have almost thirty queries out right now and so far, four rejections. I know that's not a lot, but I'm in one of those "I should just stop writing because I suck" moments. The not hearing back is killing me. (I know, I know, two and a half weeks!) I've stopped sending new queries for now until I hear back on some of these outstanding ones.

*sigh*

We've noticed a lot of crickets lately from agents, mayqueen, so hang in there. It seems there are streaks of nothing, and then trickles, and then back to nothing again. No idea why.

I hate those "I suck" moments. If you need some virtual cake, let me know.

Eh, response to a partial: "not quite what we were looking for." Well, that gives me a lot to work with.

ams, talk about kitchen tile all you want. I need a good luck charm, too. But we actually did sign the phase 1 contracts this afternoon and signed a humongous check (only took three hours), so I guess I have something happy for today. Hubs has convinced himself that we're actually adding more to the value of the house than we're spending. Whatever allows him to sleep at night

It's an even-numbered day. Maybe tomorrow...

Thanks, amschilling. Maybe agents have spring fever? It's nice outside, they want to enjoy it, submissions can wait? I don't blame them. It's gorgeous here.

Been officially form-rejected by Daniel Lazar's assistant. On the bright side, it's my very first rejection from such a bigwig agent/agency! I feel like I'm somebody now.

Rejection from a magazine. I think It's Rejection 48. I'm starting to lose count. ; It's somewhere around 50.

This story has the almost made it syndrome. First time I had to pull it since the editor didn't get the subgenre, and the second time they said it got into the final round, but it didn't get accepted (offered to publish it, but pro bono).

When is it too close to call? Two more for my top list to go.

It's a bit time sensitive, since I'd like to get it published in the summer.... Is there such a thing as submitting early and asking for it to be published later?

Form R this morning. I hate the ones that reject from the entire agency by some intern I've never heard of. And they took over a month to reject when they normally reply in less than two weeks. Weird.

I've seen more people taking longer than they state than actually coming in on time lately. Same with not responding even when their site specifically says they will. I think agencies are flooded with queries, is all.

The intern R does hurt. Sorry!

Hmmm...got an R for excessive slang in my YA along with some Native American Stereotyping. Now, that's the second time that's popped up on this book. I'm damn sure I took care of that with the last rewrite, but this submission was awhile back. But I'll check anyway.

tri

I received a "not for me" response to a partial yesterday.

What bothered me the most was that I couldn't get into Absolute Write to tell you all. Now I can relax. I was worried the site had ceased to exist. Then my head would explode.

There now. I can now relax...and feel bad about another R that tells me nothing useful. Are these becoming more common now for submissions -- maybe because agents lack time or don't want to encourage resubmission following revision?

I need a chocolate infusion.

I'm beginning to think that I'm not going to hear from any more agents on outstanding queries, much less positive news. I should send out some more. Yes, I keep saying that. Unfortunately, it seems like there is a never-ending series of decisions that need to be researched on the remodeling, and hubs has limited patience for doing it himself.

Next week they (should) start ripping up the first room of many. That should prove a good excuse for me accomplishing nothing constructive.

Oh, poor Hathor. I'm snacking on those frozen, dark chocolate covered banana slices from Trader Joe's. They're almost guilt free! Want some?

You know what I hate? When I look on query tracker and find an agent where lots of recent comments show he/she responds to Qs within minutes to hours, and then I go and query and receive NOTHING. I did this last Friday and have had no response since. I have no idea if my query even got there, or why he'd choose not to respond when there are several rejections and requests listed from May. And he represents some amazing HF with female protags in unusual settings, so I was really hoping for a request off the query. Perhaps it seemed rude of me to send a Q on Friday afternoon? I had a couple hours off work, so I decided to take advantage. Maybe I'll draft the Q next time and push "send" on Monday morning. Darn.

Good luck to everyone.

Mmm, dark chocolate, banana...what's not to want? No guilt involved -- with all those phytonutrients, it sounds downright healthy.

Sorry for the R's lately.

I've given up on the queries I have still out in limbo.

Anything smothered in chocolate is listed as "healthy" in my book.

*hands out chocolate*

Has anybody written a "chocolate is good, the more the better for you" book? Maybe I could interest an agent in that

c.e.lawson said:

Oh, poor Hathor. I'm snacking on those frozen, dark chocolate covered banana slices from Trader Joe's. They're almost guilt free! Want some?

You know what I hate? When I look on query tracker and find an agent where lots of recent comments show he/she responds to Qs within minutes to hours, and then I go and query and receive NOTHING. I did this last Friday and have had no response since. I have no idea if my query even got there, or why he'd choose not to respond when there are several rejections and requests listed from May. And he represents some amazing HF with female protags in unusual settings, so I was really hoping for a request off the query. Perhaps it seemed rude of me to send a Q on Friday afternoon? I had a couple hours off work, so I decided to take advantage. Maybe I'll draft the Q next time and push "send" on Monday morning. Darn.

Good luck to everyone.

Click to expand...

This has been happening to me a lot lately too. I sent a personalized Q to an agent that requested future work last month. Since then he's requested a few MS after a day or two from others. But me? Silence.

I collect my rejections in a separate folder in my gmail account. 10 and counting... got another one from Clarkesworld magazine recently

Carleree said:

This has been happening to me a lot lately too. I sent a personalized Q to an agent that requested future work last month. Since then he's requested a few MS after a day or two from others. But me? Silence.

Click to expand...

This is happening to me, only from the publisher side of things. I think this last year ranks the highest (for me) for non-responses. I have had success with nudges, though, and the two main excuses were, "Sorry, never sent your rejection," and "We have no record of your submission in that timeframe."

triceretops said:

This is happening to me, only from the publisher side of things. I think this last year ranks the highest (for me) for non-responses. I have had success with nudges, though, and the two main excuses were, "Sorry, never sent your rejection," and "We have no record of your submission in that timeframe."

Click to expand...

Maybe I should resend. But I don't want to appear pushy.

Carleree said:

Maybe I should resend. But I don't want to appear pushy.

Click to expand...

Me neither! Especially at only 4 days. All the other ones on QT were within minutes to hours. But I will nudge this one in a month or two.

c.e.lawson said:

Me neither! Especially at only 4 days. All the other ones on QT were within minutes to hours. But I will nudge this one in a month or two.

Click to expand...

I'll probably wait another month and resend then.