Apologies in advanced that this post might include a fair bit of drama and a little self-deprecation, but based on some of the other posts and name of the sub-topic itself, I'm hopeful that these qualities are acceptable here. I guess I just kind of feel at a loss about where to go from here, as my title suggests. I co-wrote a YA urban fiction novel with a friend of mine, and we've been shopping it around since May after about six months of small and large-scale edits and beta readings. We are both unpublished, so we started by querying seven small publishing houses because we felt like that was a decent way to enter into the industry. After a few months, we received one rejection and one offer to publish from a house that we found to not really be the best in terms of quality (after we sampled some of their pre-exisiting novels). Through that contract offer, however, my friend started to lean towards querying agents in order to be able to approach medium and large houses. He has a lot of confidence in our novel, which can be both a positive and negative, because I always feel like I have to manage his expectations.
Now two agent rejections later (as well as not hearing from other ones we queried 50+days ago), I'm just feeling very conflicted about what to do next honestly. I know there's no perfect formula, but there are just so many questions: Do we reevaluate our approach (queries)? Do we try to overhaul the novel? Do we try to get more beta readers? Do we go back and stick to small houses? Do we keep pursuing agents? Do we just concede it's all subjective and keep on firing off packages and seeing if something will fall into place? It's difficult not to feel insecure going through this process, as much as we're warned to be strong and have a thick skin. In addition to those questions, I find myself wondering if it's harder to get published for the first time as two authors or if urban YA fiction (with werewolves, vampires, witches, etc.) really just has been beaten to death and there's not much opportunity left. And, of course, is it just not good enough? I'm not even sure if I'm asking for advice or just using this as a platform for my own catharsis, but I guess I will end by saying that I'm open to any kind of comment. I know it's entirely possible I'm being too sensitive or something and letting it bother me too much. It means something that we got a house to bite, I think, and we have only been at this for four months technically. It's just difficult to look at positives when you're on this rollercoaster.
It also didn't help that we majorly struck out at PitMad
Now two agent rejections later (as well as not hearing from other ones we queried 50+days ago), I'm just feeling very conflicted about what to do next honestly. I know there's no perfect formula, but there are just so many questions: Do we reevaluate our approach (queries)? Do we try to overhaul the novel? Do we try to get more beta readers? Do we go back and stick to small houses? Do we keep pursuing agents? Do we just concede it's all subjective and keep on firing off packages and seeing if something will fall into place? It's difficult not to feel insecure going through this process, as much as we're warned to be strong and have a thick skin. In addition to those questions, I find myself wondering if it's harder to get published for the first time as two authors or if urban YA fiction (with werewolves, vampires, witches, etc.) really just has been beaten to death and there's not much opportunity left. And, of course, is it just not good enough? I'm not even sure if I'm asking for advice or just using this as a platform for my own catharsis, but I guess I will end by saying that I'm open to any kind of comment. I know it's entirely possible I'm being too sensitive or something and letting it bother me too much. It means something that we got a house to bite, I think, and we have only been at this for four months technically. It's just difficult to look at positives when you're on this rollercoaster.
It also didn't help that we majorly struck out at PitMad