"Knock me down it's all in vain/ I'll get right back on my feet again/ Hit me with your best shot/ Why don't you hit with your best shot/ Hit me with your best shot/ Fire away!" - Pat Benatar
I'm a little discombobulated this week. Labor Day messed me up, and I went through the entire day yesterday singing "I Don't Like Mondays" in my head (not exactly an appropriate song to be singing to young children, right), and I completely forgot about posting my latest Tuesday's Top Ten. I will wait until next week for that one though, as I have bigger fish to fry today.
After rewriting, tweaking, agonizing over, and finally finishing my latest attempt at the perfect query letter, I emailed it out to a handful of agents this morning. I am now feeling that familiar emotional mix of excitement, dread, and nausea. What prompted me to chose "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" as my song of the day was the two responses I already received back from agents... sigh. One agent who is known for quick replies emailed me in three minutes with a standard, polite form rejection. Three minutes. Seriously?! That was a new record for me. I have been playing this game for a while now and have come to expect rejections, but that was a little hasty. Then I got another one from a different agent, just five minutes after I had hit the send button. Her response was simply, "No, thank you." That left me a little wounded, but I have to take my cues from Pat Benatar and be tough, not back down from this challenge, and rise above the hits that I, like every aspiring author, have to take along the way.
But what I want to know is, when does it stop feeling like you are the clumsy kid that always gets picked last for kickball?
Showing posts with label rejection letters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rejection letters. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Some Will Lose
"Some will win, some will lose/ Some were born to sing the blues." - "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey
Sigh... I was not one of the lucky winners of the pitch contest I blogged about a week or so ago. I never really expect to win anything, but for some reason the outcome of this contest was more depressing than most rejections. Just the thought that winning would mean an agent would read and comment on my entire manuscript was so amazing that I let myself get excited about it, but maybe the next contest that comes along will have better results for me.
Or the next query letter. Rejection seems to be the topic of the day, with the contest and another "thanks but no thanks" from an agent. Things have to improve, right? I certainly hope so! What's a writer to do? Keep writing of course! And submitting, and revising, and praying! With next week off of work, I am making plans to revise my query letter (again), come up with a new list of agents to write to (again), and most importantly, work on my writing. I still have some editing to do for book four in the Willow Ryan series and am looking forward to starting a brand new mainstream novel next month. The important thing is that I'm not giving up, but instead I'm going to work even harder to make my dreams of becoming a published novelist a reality. I won't stop believing!
Sigh... I was not one of the lucky winners of the pitch contest I blogged about a week or so ago. I never really expect to win anything, but for some reason the outcome of this contest was more depressing than most rejections. Just the thought that winning would mean an agent would read and comment on my entire manuscript was so amazing that I let myself get excited about it, but maybe the next contest that comes along will have better results for me.
Or the next query letter. Rejection seems to be the topic of the day, with the contest and another "thanks but no thanks" from an agent. Things have to improve, right? I certainly hope so! What's a writer to do? Keep writing of course! And submitting, and revising, and praying! With next week off of work, I am making plans to revise my query letter (again), come up with a new list of agents to write to (again), and most importantly, work on my writing. I still have some editing to do for book four in the Willow Ryan series and am looking forward to starting a brand new mainstream novel next month. The important thing is that I'm not giving up, but instead I'm going to work even harder to make my dreams of becoming a published novelist a reality. I won't stop believing!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Sad
"I don't know why fortune smiles on some/ And lets the rest go free/...There's no use in asking why/ It just turned out that way/ So meet me at midnight baby/ Inside the sad cafe." - "Sad Cafe" by The Eagles
This post will be the opposite of the last one. My silver lining has faded to the point of being invisible to the naked eye. I heard back from the agent that requested a partial, the agent that I really, really thought would be perfect and the right person to represent my book, but she passed. Of course she did! I don't know why I even hoped for anything different. Okay, that was sarcastic bordering on snotty. I'll try to be nice. She said the writing was strong and the story was interesting, but she just didn't feel a strong enough connection as she would need to in order to ask for a full or offer representation. Grr!
Looking past this rejection and moving on to more agents is a big hurdle for me to jump over. Every time I get a request for a partial I tell myself I will not get my hopes up, and I really don't because I am such a pessimist. But unfortunately, a small part of me does think that maybe, just maybe, this is the one agent who will see my potential and recognize that my book is good enough to sit on the bookstore shelves. I know in my heart that it is, and I have been told that by so many people who have read it. It's just so frustrating to never have anything come of it. That being said, I won't give up because someday this is going to happen. But for today, I think I would fit in really well at the Sad Cafe. Does anyone have directions?
This post will be the opposite of the last one. My silver lining has faded to the point of being invisible to the naked eye. I heard back from the agent that requested a partial, the agent that I really, really thought would be perfect and the right person to represent my book, but she passed. Of course she did! I don't know why I even hoped for anything different. Okay, that was sarcastic bordering on snotty. I'll try to be nice. She said the writing was strong and the story was interesting, but she just didn't feel a strong enough connection as she would need to in order to ask for a full or offer representation. Grr!
Looking past this rejection and moving on to more agents is a big hurdle for me to jump over. Every time I get a request for a partial I tell myself I will not get my hopes up, and I really don't because I am such a pessimist. But unfortunately, a small part of me does think that maybe, just maybe, this is the one agent who will see my potential and recognize that my book is good enough to sit on the bookstore shelves. I know in my heart that it is, and I have been told that by so many people who have read it. It's just so frustrating to never have anything come of it. That being said, I won't give up because someday this is going to happen. But for today, I think I would fit in really well at the Sad Cafe. Does anyone have directions?
Monday, February 14, 2011
The Right Words Never Come
"Take another shot of courage/ Wonder why the right words never come/ You just get numb/ It's another tequila sunrise/ This old world still looks the same/ Another frame." - "Tequila Sunrise" by The Eagles
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about sending off a partial manuscript to Andrea Cirillo, an agent from the Jane Rotrosen Agency who had requested the first three chapters of my novel Secrets. I was very excited but at the same time realistic about my chances, and this is why. Today I got my SASE back, and as I stared momentarily at my own neat, tiny writing on the outside of the envelope that had traveled to New York and back, I knew. The rejection was brief and polite, and she said some encouraging words which are definitely appreciated, but at that moment nothing mattered other than the fact that it was a rejection. They all look the same after you realize that it's a no.
In the literary world, writers aren't supposed to take rejections personally, because after all, this is a business. But to me, this is just about as personal as you can get. How can I remain unattached to my work, unfeeling toward the 98,000 words I wrote straight from the heart? The answer is, I can't. I have spent the last two years pouring my heart and soul out into that book, and to me, it is painful to see those "thanks but no thanks" words typed across a piece of letterhead.
I realize that the opinons of literary agents shouldn't effect me like they do, and on a professional and logical level I understand the business side of writing. But on an emotional level, it hurts when the right words never come. The words that say my writing is good enough, that it means something and is worthy of being published. That being said, I am not giving up. I have invested way too much time, hope, and tears to walk away from something that means so much to me. I will keep trying, and I have to believe that eventually I will succeed. That's what gives me "another shot of courage" to send out more letters and work like crazy to make my dreams come true. Here's to hoping for better luck next time...
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about sending off a partial manuscript to Andrea Cirillo, an agent from the Jane Rotrosen Agency who had requested the first three chapters of my novel Secrets. I was very excited but at the same time realistic about my chances, and this is why. Today I got my SASE back, and as I stared momentarily at my own neat, tiny writing on the outside of the envelope that had traveled to New York and back, I knew. The rejection was brief and polite, and she said some encouraging words which are definitely appreciated, but at that moment nothing mattered other than the fact that it was a rejection. They all look the same after you realize that it's a no.
In the literary world, writers aren't supposed to take rejections personally, because after all, this is a business. But to me, this is just about as personal as you can get. How can I remain unattached to my work, unfeeling toward the 98,000 words I wrote straight from the heart? The answer is, I can't. I have spent the last two years pouring my heart and soul out into that book, and to me, it is painful to see those "thanks but no thanks" words typed across a piece of letterhead.
I realize that the opinons of literary agents shouldn't effect me like they do, and on a professional and logical level I understand the business side of writing. But on an emotional level, it hurts when the right words never come. The words that say my writing is good enough, that it means something and is worthy of being published. That being said, I am not giving up. I have invested way too much time, hope, and tears to walk away from something that means so much to me. I will keep trying, and I have to believe that eventually I will succeed. That's what gives me "another shot of courage" to send out more letters and work like crazy to make my dreams come true. Here's to hoping for better luck next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)