The Daily Rejection

Playoff time

I'm glad I followed this on my phone. The Nats lost, yet again.

How did you find an agent that will give you an answer on a full in only two months, Stephanie? Anyway, good luck!

Hathor, I was surprised too. When I sent her my full MS, she sent me an email to acknowledge good reception of the requested manuscript and told me that she would answer in two months top and if I don't have an answer in that time frame, I should nudge her. She's known to be a really fast reader even if she receives 300 query letters a week. Crazy!

Good Lord, a full request off a 3 chapter partial and synopsis. Um...can anyone say 'roller coaster'?

Yes, Tri, I absolutely agree with you - the no responses really do sting more than a simple form rejection. It's funny to think of how absolutely grateful I am when I receive a form rejection.

Fingers crossed for you all.

Hey, c.e., maybe you reverse jinxed yourself by saying you were moving on.

I am SO giving up on my existing work

Hathor - I can't tell you how many times you've made me laugh when I was feeling down. Thanks so much for that.

I feel like saying that line from The Godfather -- "...they keep pulling me back IN!"

This is me

Just got a partial/synopsis request on the fiction. Let me try this again: I am SO giving up on my existing work.

Sooo happy for you, c.e.! Good luck on the full. Or if we're saying the opposite of what we want, so we get it, hope they hate it.

One R today on an agent I'd already written off as a non-responder. So yeah. Didn't really hurt, lol.

Oh, and Hathor? Yeah--that was the sink brand we got. I can tell you that paint splatter of all types washes out nice and easy, even after it's dry and should be permanent. Luckily for the hubby.... (and there are worse folks to be than Bluto!)

No news from anyone? Do I have to start talking about sinks again? (Or eye surgery -- heard more details today, won't share.)

I actually did what I planned today: a couple nudges, a couple requeries, and a handful of new ones. With this and all my queries recently, I figure the crickets will be silenced soon.

Nope, back to crickets. One R this week and nothing else. Then again, I only sent out 3 queries this week, too. Must up my game...

Maybe sinks would help. But for the love of God, no more eye surgery! We're writers. We don't NEED the details to see them.

Oh, I haven't even given the details For purely selfish reasons, I hope my piano teacher heals soon.

He said he was fantasizing about killing his original surgeon. I did make him laugh for the first time in months, though. I told him, no, his perfect revenge would be performing eye surgery himself on the guy.

This might make a wonderful story, but it's a tad too cringe-inducing.

So, single bowl vs. double (or triple) bowl kitchen sinks -- inquiring minds want to know I suppose you all should enjoy sink talk now...before you know it, I'll be talking toilets.

To get somewhat back on topic...not getting rejections immediately is a good sign, right?

I like double: one for the dirty dishes and cutting boards during cooking/prep, the other to wash the veggies.

And um....yeah. No reject immediately MUST be good. (Actually, I just figure they're so busy they haven't seen it in the Inbox until a week or two go by. When I hit week three+ then I stop living in a fantasy and realize they're probably a "no means no" shop). A quick response--like same day or next day--surprises the heck out of me.

To get somewhat back on topic...not getting rejections immediately is a good sign, right?

I'm hoping this is the case since I have sooooo many blasted partials and fulls out there that those suckers need extra servers just to keep my shite in stock. Truth be told, I have heard from several publishers that an extra wait does mean interest in some cases.

Receiving rejections on query letters is always difficult, but when you receive a rejection on a full MS with a form is plain awful.
I feel really down about this even if it was expected. I'm already preparing myself for the other agent with my full MS and two publishers with it too. It's going to be hard because they should answer around the same time according to the time they take to read a MS.
I'm stacking chocolate!

Stephanie: Ouch on the form for a full. That really is the worst, IMO. Even if it's only one sentence to say "I loved X and Y, but Z just didn't work for me," feedback is appreciated. I've been lucky so far on my page requests, in that I at least got a hint about what didn't work. Of course, that feedback hasn't been consistent..... lol. One agent thought I had too much dialog vs. narration. One loved the dialog/narration balance and thought the pacing was spot on, but my MC didn't resonate emotionally for her. So even if you do get it, you have to take it with a grain of salt. And that stockpile of chocolate, of course.

Here's hoping some folks get good news this weekend!

Amschilling, I'm trying to think about something else and focus on another story. I know it's part of the whole adventure, but it's always difficult to receive a form on a full sub. I hope it won't be the same with the others.

Fingers crossed for everybody here waiting for some news.

I've had a couple form rejects on a full. it bites. Definitely.

Tired of waiting, doing nothing. I'm sending out a new batch of queries today. Just realized I need to write a synopsis. I hate that. I mean...HATE.

This morning, I received a form R on a query, but another full request took the sting away.

My request rate is much better with the new word count, so I'm telling myself that was the problem before.

Yeah, form Rs on fulls are difficult. I had a NR on a full, which seemed even worse, though. I nudged a couple times, but the agent couldn't even email a simple "not for me, thanks"?

Hathor said:

This morning, I received a form R on a query, but another full request took the sting away.

My request rate is much better with the new word count, so I'm telling myself that was the problem before.

Yeah, form Rs on fulls are difficult. I had a NR on a full, which seemed even worse, though. I nudged a couple times, but the agent couldn't even email a simple "not for me, thanks"?

Click to expand...

Yay for the full, Hathor

Carleree said:

Yay for the full, Hathor

Click to expand...

Thanks. If I can sell my husband on the kitchen sink I want and the Nats win, it will be a perfect day. We signed the design contract this morning and paid an unrefundable deposit, so the remodeling is actually going to happen. The designer and I even talked him into the range hood we liked.

(Gee, I hope I didn't just jinx myself.)

Who will you guys go against in the first round of the playoffs? Our opponent is still undetermined.

Now...write a draft of that synopsis, and then reward yourself with a glass of wine and some nice chocolate.

Hathor said:

Thanks. If I can sell my husband on the kitchen sink I want and the Nats win, it will be a perfect day. We signed the design contract this morning and paid an unrefundable deposit, so the remodeling is actually going to happen. The designer and I even talked him into the range hood we liked.

(Gee, I hope I didn't just jinx myself.)

Who will you guys go against in the first round of the playoffs? Our opponent is still undetermined.

Now...write a draft of that synopsis, and then reward yourself with a glass of wine and some nice chocolate.

Click to expand...

I think we're still undecided. i'm not sure. I was too distracted by our lousy playing last night. I see we've already started lining up our injured players to be the scapegoats for our early exit from the playoffs and the reffing has been unusually poor the last few games. Looks like we're all set to lose once again.

Carleree said:

I think we're still undecided. i'm not sure. I was too distracted by our lousy playing last night. I see we've already started lining up our injured players to be the scapegoats for our early exit from the playoffs and the reffing has been unusually poor the last few games. Looks like we're all set to lose once again.

Click to expand...

No excuses. Write your synopsis.

I don't really expect either of our teams to go the distance. But can we agree we don't want the Penguins to do it? http://www.crosbysucks.com/category/87-shame/

No more responses to queries by the end of business today...I expected a few.

Hathor said:

No excuses. Write your synopsis.

I don't really expect either of our teams to go the distance. But can we agree we don't want the Penguins to do it? http://www.crosbysucks.com/category/87-shame/

No more responses to queries by the end of business today...I expected a few.

Click to expand...

We can agree on Crosby, for sure. I loathe him.

And you can relax, I wrote the synopsis. It's not one page though. They'll just have to read two pages.

Another full, Hathor? Excellent!

It was the word-count. Believe.

It is nice to have an excuse for all that early rejection and a justification for all that hard work in getting the word count down. I want to believe, therefore I will

I am curious as to whether these other agents will think my book is literary or some other category.

I queried one agent who said she likes books that span the divides between genres or some such thing. I felt like saying, "Well, you should like this -- no one agrees on what it is!" I restrained myself, however. She also said she likes funny work, but I knew enough you don't tell people you're funny, you show them (hopefully).

My, I did jinx myself a bit. I was out enjoying myself last night and came back to a form R on a query. A young woman at 8:00 on a Saturday night in NYC, plowing through queries? That sounds sad.

One of my betas for the memoir (back when it was defying genre-fication altogether) asked for some advice for a client who was considering homeschooling her disabled child. I did so. She thanked me and asked how the book was coming. Aaargh! How can people ask for advice...and yet agents can't see the market?

In other news, hubs agreed to dream sink, so I need to find dream faucet. One step at a time Friday, he agreed to dream range hood. I live such an exciting life.

And...looks like all our teams made the playoffs. We may not be able to agree on who we want to win the Cup. But can we all agree on whom we don't want to win? I nominate Pittsburgh.