Purgatory's Pit of Doom

I don't get daylight saving's time, either. But I'm pretty sure that's not why I'm half asleep this morning. (That would be because my mind was racing over work-related crap, keeping me up. Ugh.)

{{{{Ink}}}} I hate when my mind-race-age keeps me up. And it doubly sucks for you 'cause it was about WORK *bleh*

Weekend was stressful. Daylight Savings sucks cause I needed that extra hour of sleep. The software that is VITAL to my job is still down after two weeks. And what do I wake up to find on this wonderful Monday morning in my inbox??? A FORM R on a 50 page partial. FML!

Mornin' Pit

{{{Ink}}}

{{{Its2Snappy}}}

(((Snappy))) Forms are a trend on requested materials, I think, not personal. But they suck -- you really hope for at least a few kind words or useful feedback.

{{Snappy}} Yeah, it seems to be a rare thing now-a-days to get true feedback on a partial or full

(((Snappy))) Form Rs suck.

ink wench said:

Count me in the non-Christian club, and I'm realizing we have an awful lot of us in the Pit. Since this was a spin-off of Purgatory.... kind of ironic that.

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I was thinking the same thing... and even though I'm not Christian either, I loved A Christmas Story.

I got an R today which really hurt me for the first time. Not because I really expected her to request, not because I'd hoped she'd remember that we had corresponded and mention it. Not because I thought I did a great job tailoring my query or because I was so enthusiastic about my newly rewritten opening; it was all these things together with the beginning of losing hope. Seventeen form rejections, and not one request?

I am feeling teenaged and lachrymose. I feel like relabeling the folders in my email to say things like "Crushed Dreams" (rejections), or "Hopeless Pining (sent)" like a faery kingdom in Jonathan Strange. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you must read it).

And I hope we all will be feeling better soon. The prolonged illness just adds to the melancholy.

ETA: Just writing that made me feel better!

{{Clare}}

Realizing that your dream might never come true is always hard to deal with

(((Clare))) Did you have your query worked through QLH here? I'd offer to take a look, but I'm drowning in work and probably shouldn't be online. Oy.

Thanks. I just realized that the parenthesis are hugs- slow, I know.

(((((everyone)))))

I did take my query through QLH, and like I said, I am feeling pretty good about my newly rewritten opening (only two of the rejections are since the rewrite). The query I am brainstorming different non-standard query angles, but it is so hard to come up with something original without being just plain annoying. I know neither my query or pages is that bad, so statistically, I should be getting some positive response at this point, if the concept is as cool as I think it is. Maybe it just isn't.

Clare, I love that book!

I read an older query of yours and your book is one I would pull off the shelf, but what do I know? My query is not pulling either, and I've had maybe 15 people review it. I think you have a cool concept but then I think I have a cool concept too, and our sort of MG may just be sluggish right now. (((Clare)))

I'm going to break character here for a second and be a *little* positive.

Clare...or maybe your concept IS just as cool as you think it is but the agent you need to connect with hasn't read your query yet.

And yeah, the {{}} means hugs. We give lots of them down here...we NEED lots of them down here

And Clare, I was just discussing off-line how it hurts more when you do have some kind of connection in a personalized query, and then you get a form or no response. I know agents are busy and I don't usually mind forms -- which I prefer to no response -- or even no response if there is a clearly stated policy. Still, there are times when you think you might be treated like a human being or a colleague, that there will be evidence that what you wrote was read and honestly considered. And it's disappointing when that doesn't happen.

{{{Clare}}}

The Pit, where even if it's good it still sucks.

SteveCordero said:

{{{Clare}}}

The Pit, where even if it's good it still sucks.

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Yeah, like the small publisher who is practically stalking me, wanting to publish one of my books. And I want nothing to do with him and his politics.

Thanks everybody. I just went and queried 4 agents. I also saw this comment by elleloth on qt which helped me feel more hopeful:

"Received two offers of representation on 4/15 for my 83,000 word romantic comedy/chick-lit novel from D4EO Literary and Book Cents Literary.

For those of you interested, here are my stats:
Began querying: 12/1/10
Offers of representation: 4/15/10

Queries sent: 115
Positive Responses = 16
Negative Responses = 99"

In most of the "Successful Queries" I've read, there is no "I'm am querying you because..." Yet agents always say they hate letters that seem impersonal or "form". What have your experiences been? Any better response from personalized Qs than non-personalized ones?

Clare, good luck!

I can't say I've had any better luck with personalization. Where I've had the best luck was when I really targeted agents who seemed like they wanted exactly what I was selling. But even then those requests turned into Rs, so who knows.

soulcascade said:

Count me in the non-Christian club, and I'm realizing we have an awful lot of us in the Pit. Since this was a spin-off of Purgatory.... kind of ironic that. <- good point *considers converting to Christianity in the hopes of getting good luck for once and escaping the Pit*

{{{Ink}}}

Kellion happy Monday my ass! We 'practice' daylight savings time in my province so I lost an hour of sleep. I'm so fucking tired!!!!!!!!!

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I'm sure Yahweh-Elohim hates people who just say they believe in him. It might come back to bite you.



Spent the whole weekend and today house hunting. GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED!!!!!! this is my visual representation of apartment hunting--> .

I didn't get a rejection today, but I did get a snail mail Q returned for the wrong address, which I doubled checked, and I copied it correctly. Always good.

I did have an awesome date yesterday with this girl who is helping me out with my film though.

Princess, returned mail is better than a R. If they're out of business, you KNOW it's them, not you. And yay for awesome dates!

That's a good point, kell. I was thinking of reusing the stamp.

LOL PoP we're so practical down here and woot for getting work on your film done

LOL Leigh shall I convert and tremble in fear then, or not and just accept my pitty fate?

kellion92 said:

Yeah, I don't understand the point of daylight savings time. It's the same amount of daylight!!!! The only thing it's good for is tricking kids into sleeping later. But then they have to go to bed when it's still light out.

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It had something to do with farmers.... or something.... I dunno. I like daylight savings time. Of course I'm of the opinion that we should always be on it.......

soulcascade said:

{{Snappy}} Yeah, it seems to be a rare thing now-a-days to get true feedback on a partial or full

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You would think that if they request crap from us that it's because we broke through the white noise and made some kind of impact. You know, the least they could do is give us a personalized R....