I’ve been writing for 14 years, but the world of publishing is one of those worlds where it comes off as a foreboding, unknown world. Like the real world, anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing or who to trust in the publishing world can (and will) get lost or, worse–get involved with a shady person/publishing house that will exploit them and leave them bitter and jaded.
Fortunately, I’m in my 20s in an age where The Internet is, to borrow a quote from Homer Simpson, “…the cause of — and solution to — all of life’s problems.” Not long ago, I became a member of a writers’ forum called AbsoluteWrite (
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php), which not only specializes in helping aspiring writers create better works, but also to help aspiring writers avoid scam artists and vanity publishers (including PublishAmerica. Yes — the same one that I had “The Writing Sideshow” published under, though, in my defense, “The Writing Sideshow” was the type of work that would have gone to a vanity publisher — or even a self-publisher — anyway, since poetry isn’t that much in demand. If my work-in-progress novel,
Died Laughing, were published under PublishAmerica, I’d be pissed and fighting to have my contract canceled with them over it.
Died Laughing is the novel I’m saving and grooming (much like a rich, teenage girl getting prepped to be a debutante) to be my breakout hit. To do that, I need a literary agency that has public exposure (and acclaim), has sold works I’ve heard of (or at least works to publishing companies I’ve heard of, like HarperCollins or Harlequin, though I’m not sure if I ever want to publish a romance novel. Maybe an erotica anthology or a romantica [romance/erotica] novel, but not a pure piece of purple prose), and will more than likely reject me 1000 times before I come up with that one manuscript they’re looking for.
Speaking of rejection, I just got a rejection email today (actually, it came yesterday, but I was too scared to read it) from BookEnds, LLC (
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/), a literary agency that has worked with Berkley Publishing, Bantam, NAL, SoHo Press, St. Martin’s, Kensington, Harlequin, Pocket Books, Leisure Books, McGraw-Hill, Adams Media, and Beacon Press, to name a few. They even work with the books in the “For Dummies” series and the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series (I have two books from the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series, both on writing: one is for penning erotic romance, the other is for penning comedy of all kinds, from sketch and sitcom scripts to greeting card messages and bumper stickers).
On July 5, I submitted the first three chapters to
Died Laughing to this agency, since they do work with mysteries, and my work is in the mystery genre. On July 8th, I received this email from them:
Re: Query and Submission
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 7:33 AM
From:
“Jessica Faust” <
[email protected]>
Add sender to Contacts
To:
“Canais Young” <
[email protected]>
Thank you so much for giving BookEnds a chance to consider your work. While I found your query intriguing I’m afraid I wasn’t sufficiently enthusiastic to ask for more at this time.
As I’m sure you know, publishing is a subjective business and I’m sure there’s another agent out there better suited to your work.
I wish you the best of luck and the greatest success.
Sincerely,
Jessica Faust
BookEnds, LLC
http://www.bookends-inc.com
Now, if I overreacted and took this as a sign that no agency would want my work, I wouldn’t be a writer in the first place. One of the traits of being a writer is to be relentless – or to be more precise, have the kind of tenacity found in overachieving high school seniors on the prowl for a prestigious university or self-deluded ladies’ men who always chalk up a woman rejecting his sleazy pick-up lines to “She’s playing hard to get,” or “She’s a lesbo,” like a 21st century, live-action incarnation of
Pepe Le Pew.
No one really knows this, but I was rejected once prior to this incident.
I was ten years old. I had written a short story that a computer teacher thought was worthy of being published in a magazine. I took her advice and had it sent to
Highlights magazine (that kiddie magazine that features Goofus and Gallant). A couple weeks later, I got a letter back from them, stating that, while my story was interesting for a 10-year-old, there were two things wrong with it: (a) it was two pages long, which is too long for the reader submission page they had, and (b) it was a little too scary for younger readers (hey, I was reading
Goosebumps book back in the day and took my horror cues from that, no matter how cheesy they may seem now). I may not have the physical copy of the letter now, but I do remember the words and use that rejection to improve my work.
And now it’s fourteen years later. During that time, I have had my writing published, but it was mostly poems and mostly done by the school. The closest to major publishing I’ve gotten is when I worked with
The Philadelphia Inquirer as part of a short-lived, weekend program called and had an article about my high school’s poetry slam club and how it brings together students of all racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual backgrounds. Now that I’m out of school (at least until I enroll into The Restaurant School), I have nothing but time between looking for a steady job and looking for literary agencies who would like to have me on board. The only thing I’m short on is money