Getting all conspira-cidal

I never heard about the underground literary freemasons.
Nah, I doubt they're real. If you still believe in them, join a crit group, online or real life. Listen to apalling stuff. Read apalling stuff. Try and fix stuff up for people and sink your head in despair. feel sorry for agents and publishers. Vow to never torture them with such rubbisH. Work on your craft. Learn, learn, learn, edit edit edit, rewrite (ah you get it)

Keep reading books and stories you admire. They really do make you raise your game. If you despise the book after five pages stop reading it.

Don't worry about how anyone else is doing. It's only you that matters. Keep writing. Let that novel do the rounds and get busy on your next one, making sure you also keep a weather eye out for tips and likewise on the craft (If you're not already)
Good luck. Remember. It's not about them. It's about you.

I've never felt hostile toward those who succeed, not even those who don't deserve it. What they do and have done has nothing to do with me.

How to get over it?

I would suggest write something else, then edit and polish it and start submitting and work on the next thing.

And so on. If you are shopping your first and only novel, that's your problem, and you should remedy it.

I see writing a lot like Golf.

You're not really competing against the other players on the course. You're only competing against yourself. If you've done your homework (research/practice/studied) , chosen the best clubs for you (genre/market/agents/publishers) , gotten a good caddy (beta reader/crit group), and have your game in focus (are you BICing?), then the only thing that stops you from being successful is you.

There's enough debut authors out there that I can't see any big conspiracy against newbies. As Miss Snark so rightly points out, "Good writing triumphs all".

on_the_verge said:

I just recently re-wrote the entire letter -- in fact, I re-worked my entire novel -- due to all the rejections. So, you see, these initial rejections have given me positive strength (re-working my novel), and negative, aggressive energy.

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Don't underestimate the power of negative aggressive energy (unless you go out on the street knocking into old ladies and kicking dogs). If any of these rejections have given you specific ideas about how to improve your novel, then that's a good thing. But if you re-write it too many times, you may just wind up cancelling yourself out at some point.

Ask someone who knows.

Maybe look for stories of every day, ordinary people just like you who ended up successful published writers with no connections or referrals or anything like that. In fact, try this and scroll down to the section entitled, "Getting Published." Regular, ordinary mother of three without a publishing connection in the world. It's a great story. Try to let these kinds of stories encourage you to realize that it can and does happen, and why not to you?

Publishing does seem like this exclusive club sometimes and we're all just trying to get our foot in the door. But it's not because "they" are trying to keep up out, it's just that you have to be really good to get in. And that takes work and time and time and work.

Good Luck.

Maprilynne

At my first writer's conference I was fortunate to meet a woman who was newly published and working on her second book. She was a mother of two boys and lived in Canada. She has become my good friend. She knew no one - was able to get a great US agent and now is working on her third book (her second will be out in the spring). Because I met her so early in my querying process she set me straight.
She took me under her wing. It is hard to hear but you need to listen.
Focus on your writing - start the second and third book. Two months is nothing in this business.
Listen to Richard White. It IS somewhat like golf. You can either go over to the DARK SIDE allow your jealousy and cynicism to eat you from the inside out, destroy your creativity, force you to second guess yourself at every turn, or you can start your next book while you query your first and edit, attend workshops and be determined that even if it takes you twenty years - this is what your goal is.
It is your choice.
Yes, it is hard when you read a book you think you could have written better or you hear of a million dollar contract. Be glad for those people and move on.
There are times that sites like these can be wonderfully useful and other times a maelstrom of discontent. Find the parts that give you hope.
BTW I am unknown. I have no connections. I obtained a great agent after three years and four manuscripts.
I have NO GUARANTEE that my book will even sell, but each step you get closer.
Over 50 of my SASE sit in my dresser drawer. All rejections...except one.
That's the one that counts.
Don't give up.
JMHO

The thing is there are only X spots available on every publisher's list and there are like X+1000 manuscripts vying for those spots. It may seem like a conspiracy but it's just a really hard fought competition.

I can't remember which thread, but there was one here where a bunch of people chimed in as the "no connections yet have agent and publisher etc" type of people. There are quite a number here on the boards who ARE doing it, and not because of any other reasons than hard work and perservarance (and to be honest it can be a bit insulting insinuating otherwise). It can happen. It does happen. You can do it.

Instead of just rewriting and getting frustrated, why not write another book?

Most books that are rejected are rejected because they're not good enough. Your next one might be.

I had no connections, and I signed with a reputable New York agent within two months of finishing my first novel. Unfortunately...that's when the good times ended. We've had no success with selling it as yet (it's been about six months).

Everyone should see this thread before they take too much of their valuable time responding to on_the_verge.

on_the_verge said:

I've also been trying to put the ideas of the whole underground literary revolutionaries out of my mind -- you know the whole thing about the literary world being some kind of freemasonry, designed to keep outsiders believing in what it makes itself appear to be.

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Anyone who believes that needs to listen to AC Crispin's interview on I Should Be Writing, with Mur Lafferty. She addresses this very myth and has some frank (and true) opinions as to why writers feel this way.

You can find it here:

http://shouldwrite.blogspot.com/2006/10/special-show-16-ac-crispin-interview.html