My name is earlyAM and I made a rookie mistake.
My 'top pick' agent recently announced that her client list is filling and she may close submissions. I had been working on a novel and completed a first draft with a couple of edits, both self and beta. I thought about and decided to craft a query. The query included all the normal stuff: the letter and the first few pages of the MS. I knew she would reject it. My plan was to judge the quality of the query by how fast the rejection appeared in my inbox.
Well, you guessed it. She responded within three days with a request for the FULL and a proposal. Skipped right over the partial.
Oops.
So I did the best I could, giving myself what I felt was a reasonable four days to continue to refine. You know the tale of woe that follows, don't you? There are no huge issues, but there are missing commas, a few typos--you for your, her for he, etc. The stuff your eye slides over and spell check won't catch.
I just can't recover from this mistake. I've entertained the idea of emailing her and letting her know that I've since refined even more, but I know that's the even bigger kiss of death.
Talk me down, fellow writers. Slap my hand if you must. Tell me to move away from my keyboard and wait for the inevitable rejection. It might all be for naught anyway; it might be the quality of writing or the story she rejects, not the typos. Right?
If she does respond with something like "I like the writing/story but the MS is messy" how should I respond?
Thanks in advance. I really am a rookie. Flog as you see fit.
My 'top pick' agent recently announced that her client list is filling and she may close submissions. I had been working on a novel and completed a first draft with a couple of edits, both self and beta. I thought about and decided to craft a query. The query included all the normal stuff: the letter and the first few pages of the MS. I knew she would reject it. My plan was to judge the quality of the query by how fast the rejection appeared in my inbox.
Well, you guessed it. She responded within three days with a request for the FULL and a proposal. Skipped right over the partial.
Oops.
So I did the best I could, giving myself what I felt was a reasonable four days to continue to refine. You know the tale of woe that follows, don't you? There are no huge issues, but there are missing commas, a few typos--you for your, her for he, etc. The stuff your eye slides over and spell check won't catch.
I just can't recover from this mistake. I've entertained the idea of emailing her and letting her know that I've since refined even more, but I know that's the even bigger kiss of death.
Talk me down, fellow writers. Slap my hand if you must. Tell me to move away from my keyboard and wait for the inevitable rejection. It might all be for naught anyway; it might be the quality of writing or the story she rejects, not the typos. Right?
If she does respond with something like "I like the writing/story but the MS is messy" how should I respond?
Thanks in advance. I really am a rookie. Flog as you see fit.
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