Teens Writing for Teens, the 5th

Missus Akasha said:

I would be so scared to query. I can write stories all day along and post them on the internet for all to read, but querying is a different ballgame that I am very scared of. I mean I know I have to overcome that fear if I want to ever get published in my lifetime.

I know I am suppose to expect rejection during querying, but I fear it nonetheless.

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I actually can't wait for my first rejection.

I can't wait to actually finish something that can be queried so...hopefully Whispers in the Dark will be that something.

Karla - It looks really pretty. I like the patterns in your header.

*nudges thread*

Thanks, Ely! So glad you like the header! I spent a good 45 minutes just playing around with text placement for the part in the burgundy (I think is' burgundy) stripe.

Elysium said:

I actually can't wait for my first rejection.

I can't wait to actually finish something that can be queried so...hopefully Whispers in the Dark will be that something.

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That's true, Thalia. They aren't rejecting authors, just the stories. I can only imagine how difficult a literary agent's job is.

Ely, I would buy Whispers in the Dark in a heartbeat!

Missus Akasha said:

That's true, Thalia. They aren't rejecting authors, just the stories. I can only imagine how difficult a literary agent's job is.

Ely, I would buy Whispers in the Dark in a heartbeat!

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Aw. Thanks MA!

Yeah, I don't mean to sound obnoxious or anything, but I don't really see what the big deal is rejection. I've been rejected so many times already... It doesn't bother me at all. For anyone who hasn't been rejected and is scared of it: the first one actually feels, well, nice IMHO. I liked getting my first rejection. It made me realize that I was a real writer now.
But that's just me.

Ely, I might be sending more TL sometime this week. I think I'd love for you to be a cheerleader beta instead!

KarlaErikaCal said:

Ely, I might be sending more TL sometime this week. I think I'd love for you to be a cheerleader beta instead!

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Okay.

ADELE I LOVE THEE.

I love Adele. I'm so glad she actually won something. They always snub her award ceremonies.

MysteryRiter said:

Yeah, I don't mean to sound obnoxious or anything, but I don't really see what the big deal is rejection. I've been rejected so many times already... It doesn't bother me at all. For anyone who hasn't been rejected and is scared of it: the first one actually feels, well, nice IMHO. I liked getting my first rejection. It made me realize that I was a real writer now.
But that's just me.

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Right on man, right there with you. A life time of being immediately dismissed by people (being 5'2" and male is a terrible offense, don't you know) made taking rejection letters surprisingly easy--and not in the "Oh I never expected to succeed in the first place" way, but in the "They're not rejecting me, they're rejecting my work, and I can still improve that."

One can always improve their writing, so that rejection is hypothetically temporary if they want it to be.

I think I'm doing an all-nighter...

I'm only gone a little over 12 hours and the thread jumps 8 PAGES!!!! Seriously guys!!!

I swear people only decide to come out of the shadows when i'm sleeping! Just kidding.

Hows everyone doing?

LOL Ally. I was shocked to find 6 new pages when I signed on at 3 or 4. I didn't read everything, though.

I'm doing well. I just finished writing a possible query for TL. Now I'm gonna revise Chapter 3 of it.

Cool. I'm almost finish TAJ! I'll finish it by the end of the week!

Although tonight I'm in deep shit. I have a test tomorrow i'm going to fail, it for the class i failed before and i had to retake. Only problem is the teacher still doesnt teach, so I STILL DONT KNOW WHAT THE F*&^ TO DO!!!! At this point i've F*&^ing given up. A week of headaches... just staring at papers with no reason behind them. Then friday he gave us practice problems in which i'm like WHAT THE F*&^ WE NEVER LEARNED THIS!!! I would know i saved all the POGILS and i didnt even know we were supposedly learning reversible reactions. I was under the impression we were doing bullshit. Oh wait we were, only apparently from the bullshit we were supposed to learn reversible reactions. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I'm just really pissed off. I went from 3 panic attacks today where i was crying over my work, to pure hatred and rage. This shit just isnt fair. TO make matters worst i also have to write a 2 page movie review for a bullshit class that i had to take for 4 more credits. Its just wasting my time in which i could spend banging my head against a wall trying to understand the pogils.

Thalia said:

But yeah. Querying. To be honest, writing is one of the only things I'm not crippling lay insecure about (the only thing along with performing) so rejections don't bother me. Because they're not rejecting ME, they're rejecting my story.

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But there's only a limited number of agents who can represent your work with any success, so each rejection makes it even less likely that your novel will ever ...

Wait, I'm doing that logic thing again.

If a novel fails, try try again!

I wrote E.L.F in 2006/7ish. I subbed it!

No one wanted it

I wrote Wake Up in 2009! I subbed it!

No one wanted it

I wrote Against the Dying in 2010! I subbed it...someone liked it, but then I had to re-write it because someone (Para) pointed out the beginning was terrible, and by the time the re-write was done, the person who liked it had forgotten it...

And no one wanted it

SO I WROTE DEBRIS DREAMS!

AND I SUBBED IT

And no one wanted it

Then I went to a publisher on a long shot and got absurdly lucky. So, if agents fail, try smaller publishers. Bigger publishers might not be as receptive, obviously.

Well dont a lot of agents reject you simply from what they see as your query? Couldnt the query letter itself just be flawed? Not the novel, or the person, just some stupid one paged letter?

Maybe its nothing to really worry about.

And then I built a third castle in the swamp...and this one burst into flames, fell over, then sunk into the swamp!

amlptj said:

Well dont a lot of agents reject you simply from what they see as your query? Couldnt the query letter itself just be flawed? Not the novel, or the person, just some stupid one paged letter?

Maybe its nothing to really worry about.

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Unfortunately, by the time your queries have been rejected by everyone under the sun, it's not important exactly why they rejected you. Your manuscript is burned - you might as well set fire to it. Any series dreams are over. You're finished until you write, rewrite, polish and query the next project, which could take years. So I'm not one of those people who cheerily say that rejections mean nothing.

Well, if you sell a different book, you can go back and sell your old books later. Hell, I think a lot of authors do that.

But...yeah, querying is hard, uncertain and painful...

Can you re-query to the same agent with the same book just different query?

(never queried so i'm a little unfamiliar with some rules.)

It's a pretty big faux pas, I think.

There is a good part I didn't think of: The sheer number of agents. A friend of mine sent hundreds of queries. HUNDREDS!

It was cray cray. Got him an agent too!

Zoombie said:

It's a pretty big faux pas, I think.

There is a good part I didn't think of: The sheer number of agents. A friend of mine sent hundreds of queries. HUNDREDS!

It was cray cray. Got him an agent too!

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I admire anyone who can continue to query while being utterly crushed on a daily basis. After thirty-five queries, I'm done.