Purgatory's Pit of Doom

'but we'll never tell you to turn your frown upside down.' <-AMEN!

*snort* Mario seriously?? I mean I guess they did get back to you but 'full plate'? WTH is that? LOL

WOOT GOOD LUCK KELLION!!!!!! *fingers crossed* But no worries about any of us trying to put a positive spin on any potential rejection. We still have our sporks and are ready to wield them at the slightest sniff of optimism in the form of 'it only takes one!!'

shit ink, sounds like even your characters live in the pit

I'm thinking about spiking my coffee. I have a ton of freelance work in the next week -- except that nothing is working out AT ALL.

Hi Karo!

Thanks to both Ink and Mario for making me chuckle.

((Kellion))

RedScylla said:

It's better than that other trick agents use. You send a self-addressed stamped envelope of relatively decent quality, and they send you and e-mail rejection! Bastards are running some kind of black market in postage stamps...

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I hate that! I could have used that stamp to pay a late bill!

And, IHeart, I've had that happen as well. You get surprised when you see the envelope, but then you realize, oh crap. I hate being a doom & gloom optimist.

Kellion, good luck!

Soul, my characters always belong in the Pit! No really, my goal when creating a character is make them as miserable as possible. Gives them plenty of issues to work through.

Worth posting twice?

Hey I also posted this in Cigar

Found this on Canada Reads, pretty interesting

"The book world is a weird one. (I'm sure the worlds of film and music have their own weirdness, too, but I stand firm when I say the book world is weirder.) I think it comes down to the peculiarities of reading itself. Reading isn't a collective experience, like a music concert or a movie. It's personal. One-on-one. The reader and the writer. Or, in the best books, the reader and the characters. Reading is an investment of your time. It engages you. Gets you thinking. Reading doesn't wash over you so much as get under your skin.

For those reasons, readers tend to be particular about the books they buy. They usually know what they like and, more important, what they don't like. Sometimes, those opinions are based on fact. And sometimes, they're based on assumption.


In any case, publicity and marketing teams do the best they can to drum up reviews and media interest for their titles. But it's tough. Unless the author is well known or if the book is an award winner or has a topical subject, it can be difficult to frame a discussion around it. The best that anyone can hope for in this crowded publishing landscape is to get a book on a reader's radar. Whether that reader goes out and buys the book is a whole other obstacle."


IMO (and I'm sure lots of you share my opinion one of the hardest...if not THE hardest thing about trying to get published is how damn subjective it is. SOoooo much relies on finding the right agent, right editor, right timing, right audience, etc etc etc...why do we bother trying to be published authors again? *scratches head* ooh riiight, foolish dreams and whatnot

Yeah yeah I know I'm preaching to the choir with you guys, but I couldn't help venting!

lkp said:

And in the long run, we're all dead. How's that for a nice Pit-like statement.

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I actually find that a comforting idea. No matter how bad things get, at least it won't last forever...

*puts fingers in ears* I can't hear you, Soul. I don't want to know about the difficulties after I'm published -- I just want to be published!

Pit Dwellers, I'm feeling surly. And it's not from you guys.

Soul, thanks for sharing. I hate the "s" word, not because I think it's bad that we all have different tastes, but because it means so much luck is involved in the process. Bleh.

Kellion, uh oh.

HAHAH Kellion even in a surly mood you still crack me up
Ink I loathe the S word too. Sometimes I pick up a NYT bestseller still half expecting to be WOWED because...well shit it's a NYT bestseller....but, of course....I typically find that the stories are no better or worse written than some manuscripts I've betaed. It's just that those authors fell into a bit of luck (IMO)

Just thought I'd pop in to spread some gloom. Agent with my full has had it over two weeks now. Not long in agent time, but according to her QT stats, she's responded to almost everyone else within one week. I am becoming an outlier. *flails*

(I realize QT is not the be all and end all, but it gives me something else to fret over.)

*slaps Ink for her own good* You are fretting. I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean anything *risks sounding optimistic and hopes Ink will appreciate Soul for putting her neck out there like this* Maybe those stats refer to ms's she's read and Rejected? Maybe that means yours won't get tossed by the wayside? *Runs from pit hounds*

Ink -- I'll second Soul's suggestion...then run and hide.

Ouch! You'd better run!

And, um, actually her positive responses come faster than her negative ones. (Score one for the Pit!) But either way, I'm still an outlier.

Shit! You man my hand is stinging from slapping you for nothing?

soulcascade said:

Shit! You man my hand is stinging from slapping you for nothing?

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I try to only moan over things that seem to have merit.

I agree that you are over-fretting, Ink. Don't thwack me though, because I had a really uncomfortable day at my former/part-time employer and a really terrible phone interview with my big shot subject (I think the piece will be find if I can edit out my Qs so I don't sound as stupid as I did in real life. It was ugly.).

I hope never, ever to work there again. Whenever I go back to my old job, it is literally like a nightmare -- I thought I escaped but there I am.

(((Kellion))) Sorry about the job, and I'm sure the interview didn't go as badly as you think. I always think I sound like an idiot on the phone.

Well, I hope it didn't go as badly as I thought. At least the parts where she talked made sense.

History on my job: I quit three years ago when I pregnant with my second child, but to help out my old boss, I continued to do the job freelance as interim editor until they could replace me. I did that for 18 months!!!! I tried to quit AGAIN but they wouldn't let me because they needed me so much. And then when they finally hired someone (which thrilled me to pieces), the new dean and vice dean (new ones) acted all weird, like they had fired me and I was incompetent.

I have interviewed and spoken with the dean multiple times, but today he introduced himself to me because he had utterly forgotten who I was. I wish I could forget him too.

ACK! {Kellion} that's awful...and weird as hell wtf do you mean they wouldn't let you quit how is that possible?? It's almost like they kept you hoping you'd fuck up and when you didn't they made up a story

He was the new dean and he thought the magazine needed redesigning -- which it did. But it was supposed to be the job of the new editor and not the interim editor, because a new editor would want to make her imprint.

kellion92 said:

I have interviewed and spoken with the dean multiple times, but today he introduced himself to me because he had utterly forgotten who I was. I wish I could forget him too.

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Heh.

Oy. Sounds lovely. I hope you don't have to deal with them again.

Must rant...

Today has been the day from, well, here - as in, Purgatory.

I have had (large) publisher interest, so I contacted my number one agent of choice the other day. She responded quickly with a "great, can't wait to read it." So I log on to a stupid social networking site today only to read that she has this ms, she's not sure if it's worth the effort to recommend changes, she's not confident changes can be made by author, should she just pass, etc. It makes an author paranoid to think it could be him/her being publicly smashed about.

And while I'm sure she was talking to other agents, I want to respond and remind her that there are actually authors reading this stuff too and it kills a little part of us to think an agent could be talking about us that way.

Next, I'm supposed to have an appointment to talk to a different agent this afternoon. She doesn't even call. And she's with a respected agency! How do I know there wasn't an emergency? She's been on Twitter. Grrrr.

So skip the cookies and bust out the booze. I'm almost ready to scrap the agent search and go this alone.

Now if you will all excuse me, I'm going to see Satan's minions and inquire about having my back flayed. <sniff>

Mad, have some of the red punch. Twitter stalking is a no-win occupation. Agent one probably wasn't talking about you! No reason to think that. Agent two? I don't know. But people blow off people all the time, including agent people.

More booze.

(and sorry for bringing my continuing identity crisis into the Pit. I know it's annoying but if it makes the rest of your stay in the Pit more uncomfortable, well, I've done my job.)

Thanks Kellion. No way is my cry fest more significant than your truly bad day/week. I didn't mean that at all. I was just ranting and had to come down from the rafters to be able to post a somewhat sensible reply to you. I really feel for you and I agree with ink wench in saying I hope you never have to deal with them again.

Thanks for the vote of confidence too. I sometimes think agent people aren't people until I'm reminded they're still people.

To the punch! (And here's hoping you have a better week next week.)