The Daily Rejection

triceretops said:

Today's post:

THE PLAGUE OF NON-RESONDERS

tri

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Excellent blog post, Tri! I certainly concur.

In my years of off-and-on querying, I've seen this trend (the non-responding) just escalate to ridiculous proportions. Now, it's the norm rather than the exception.

So far, in my last batch of querying 60 agents, I've had about a 65% non-response rate. In fact, it's gotten to the point that if I don't get a response from an agent within 48 hours, I mentally mark them off my list as a rejection (and so far, it's been very accurate - any partial/full requests have all happened within 2 days of a query).

Times, they are a'changin'. And not always for the better....

God, I hate non-responders too. I blogged about it just recently.

Instead of writing articles and sending them in cold to my big magazine publisher, this time I'm querying them and suggesting titles and topics. Good thing I did--just got my fourth rejection. Jesus.

tri

Three form rejections in one day. Woo hoo!

itsmary said:

Three form rejections in one day. Woo hoo!

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Oh, my Gud. Now that's a slew of them. I think that's the most I've had in one day.

Anyway, good on you, you're out there and drawing the flak.

tri

Personalized R on my partial with J. Franzen's agent. Ah well. Onward...

I made a bunch of subs to YA publishers, found on JacketFlap:

http://www.jacketflap.com/publishers

And boy, I'm picking up "notification failures" just right and left, which makes me believe that the website links are old or have been changed. This has prompted me to Google the publishers for their most recent (fresh) sub address and try again.

Not rejections, per se, but GD frustrating, especially after having put nice, personal query packages together.

We need some good news around here. Just got a full request (exclusive) off two chapters and the synopsis. Woohoo! Let the nail biting commence!

Yay Carleree!! WOOT!

Carleree said:

We need some good news around here. Just got a full request (exclusive) off two chapters and the synopsis. Woohoo! Let the nail biting commence!

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I'm game--just got a full request off 3 chapters and a synop yesterday. Real nice (advance-paying house), and my agent is aware it--we didn't cross paths on the sub trail.

tri

Great news, folks!

triceretops said:

I'm game--just got a full request off 3 chapters and a synop yesterday. Real nice (advance-paying house), and my agent is aware it--we didn't cross paths on the sub trail.

tri

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Excellent! Pass the wine and cupcakes, it's a celebration!

Guhhhh. You guys. Am sitting here typing up what I wrote yesterday and feeling like the most incredible dork and sham for even trying to do this.

Anyone else?

You write longhand? I could never do that, typing is the only way that's fast enough to keep up when I'm on a roll.

pollymilton said:

Guhhhh. You guys. Am sitting here typing up what I wrote yesterday and feeling like the most incredible dork and sham for even trying to do this.

Anyone else?

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Word. This is me, too, often. Especially when I take breaks from writing in the middle of a project, which is what's happened to me for the past three weeks while my boyfriend's family was visiting.

Just thinking about my fledgling of a new novel and all its still-unresolved character and plot issues makes me think, "Why did I ever believe I could do this?" The only solution is to keep going or to quit, and quitting seems even dumber than starting the damn thing in the first place.

Ugh. I've been writing in circles for the last two days. I keep getting stuck at the same spot.

Carleree said:

We need some good news around here.

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I was shocked yesterday to get a full request by a major agent -- one that I'd crossed off as a non-responder/rejection because it's been almost 3 months since I queried.

Heh. There goes my theory about requests only being given in the first 48 hours. That's always been my experience, at least...

Congrats to those with requests!

pollymilton said:

Guhhhh. You guys. Am sitting here typing up what I wrote yesterday and feeling like the most incredible dork and sham for even trying to do this.

Anyone else?

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I'm apparently too full of wine and cupcakes to write a single sentence making a particular point. And I've marked up my written draft so much on another page I can't follow all my arrows, astericks, added text, deleted added text, etc. Stupid even-numbered day.

It does bother me how many years I've been working on the NF. At least someone who liked my original version says the new one doesn't lose anything and actually reads better. Why am I incapable today of making what should be small, polishing changes?

Yay Chelsea!! Wootsauce!

Hathor, give it for the day and wait till it's an odd-numbered day. Don't tempt Fate. It never works out well. I'm pretty sure Fate and Karma are in cahoots.

DJ-Rowling writes long hand. Maybe Polly is onto something. But I'm betting Polly can't always sit in front of a computer to write, in which case writing longhand makes perfect sense

Carleree said:

Yay Chelsea!! Wootsauce!

Hathor, give it for the day and wait till it's an odd-numbered day. Don't tempt Fate. It never works out well. I'm pretty sure Fate and Karma are in cahoots.

DJ-Rowling writes long hand. Maybe Polly is onto something. But I'm betting Polly can't always sit in front of a computer to write, in which case writing longhand makes perfect sense

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Wootsauce? I've given up trying to stay up with you crazy kids. (Well, for most things. I've already polished off that bottle of Yukon Jack all by myself. )

Carleree, I may have just figured out a way to do what I wanted to do. Fate and Karma may be in cahoots, but some Playful Spirit likes to mess with me when I say I can't do something. For instance, if I ask where something is in the grocery store, more than half the time I suddenly see it right in front of me.

I do first drafts and revisions on the computer. At some point, I find I need to make changes and additions on a hard copy, though. Maybe it's what you're used to. Years ago, before the ready availability of word processing, I wrote everything longhand. I seemed to have better first drafts back then. It's similar to how the availability of calculators has made my arithmetic skills go downhill. (I have mentioned being old, right? When I was in school, we used sliderules and computers worked with punch cards.)

I always work with a hard copy for final edits. Words look different on a page than on the screen. It's like magic.

That being said, I think you are brave to take on Fate and Karma all on your own on an even-numbered day. I'm rooting for you. But if they come for you, I'm ducking out of the way. Just so we're clear.

I got a full MS request today, followed by two rejections! All in all, not too bad, since I just started requerying yesterday!

Carleree said:

I always work with a hard copy for final edits. Words look different on a page than on the screen. It's like magic.

That being said, I think you are brave to take on Fate and Karma all on your own on an even-numbered day. I'm rooting for you. But if they come for you, I'm ducking out of the way. Just so we're clear.

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I decided not to push my luck any further and went for a long walk. I'll try again tomorrow. I honestly think that next week I actually can start requerying.

Then pretty soon I can start querying the fiction, too.

More than anything, I'd like to be drafting new stuff again. I suppose completely rewriting the last chapters of the NF might have come close, but I was limited by the truth.

Popping in to share this - it's a bit rah, rah, carpe diem, etc, for a thread like this, but I love it.

Reminds me of why we endure all that we endure: Writer's Manifesto

Congrats, Carleree, Chelsea and Narmowen! This thread's hoppin'.

I just followed Carleree's advice (thank you!) and sent out seven new queries today. It's only a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

More houseguests to entertain this weekend, so I'm off again. Have a great few days, odd and even, peeps.

ChelseaWriter said:

Popping in to share this - it's a bit rah, rah, carpe diem, etc, for a thread like this, but I love it.

Reminds me of why we endure all that we endure: Writer's Manifesto

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"Write scared." I'm going to cling to that one like a life raft. Thanks for sharing.