I was at a conference for San Antonio Romance Authors this spring and editors from six different houses happened to attend, including Tor, Dorchester, Kensington, Berkeley and a couple of others. I remember very distinctly someone asking if chick lit was dead. The answer was:
"The TERM
chick lit is dead. But
humorous romances are alive and kicking." The elements can be remarkably similar, but nobody in the publishing world wants to hear that term, because it DOES raise images of shoes, snark and shallow, materialistic heroines.
But funny still sells just fine, so switch your terms, downplay the shoes (even if your heroine DOES have a shoe fetish) and run that rabbit through again. Bet you'll get a nibble next time.