Any letter from an agent that starts out: "You are clearly a talented writer," must be good news, right? I mean, there's some affirmation that my hours slogging away over a keyboard in a coffee shop must be paying off.
And if that letter continued with "there is much to be admired in these pages," surely an offer must follow, right?
Instead, the dreaded phrase: "That said..." came next. Which meant, better luck next time. She didn't "fall in love" with it. I'd take some infatuation at this point.
I'm used to rejection. I've written two novels. I've had a number, maybe a third, of the agents I queried ask to see all or part of a novel, but each time it falls a little short.
Sigh.....
I'm not sure that the nice words help. Maybe someone should say, "This is crap. Stop wasting your time." Then I could take up needlepoint or dog training.
Instead I get letters, like the one early on that promised me, "We're sure you'll sell this." Why not that agent then if she was so sure?
I don't want to become bitter. I'll swallow and send out more queries on my second novel until my third novel is done. Then I'll be back to editing and trying to sell it. What I'm really trying to sell though is myself. And although I've gotten a hard enough shell to not fret over every rejection, this one hurt a little. I felt tears sting my eyes. I felt like I'd gotten so close.
Just last week, I got a form rejection letter that I thought was so cute I even laughed at it. This agent didn't request to see my work, not even the first five pages, but I admired how much money he must be saving on paper with the teeny, tiny rejection form.
Maybe the next agent will feel some chemistry, just a spark that we can fan to catch fire.
Meanwhile, I guess I need to take it easy and enjoy the process. To quote another memorable writer, Miley Cyrus: "It ain't about how fast I get there, it ain't about what's waitin' on the other side. It's the climb."
For anyone who's curious, here's a link to the synopsis of my novels:http://www.paulitakincer.com/novels/
3 comments:
I'm sorry that one of these agents hasn't just snatched up your book and made you a millionaire yet. But I'm sure it will happen. Especially with such a delightful cast of characters, you can't go wrong. :)
They are crazy.
It must be very hard to get these rejection letters after all the effort you have put in them.
I don't know the motive for you to publish, if it's money, I guess this won't help, but if its appreciation of the work that you have created, then may be you can publish them on a writers guild web site. There are a lot of them and I confess to reading a lot of them. For me as a reader, they are free, for the author they get tons of feedback and suggestions, not to mention loyal readers. Some of the really good once got a contract for there next work since they had a good following, etc.
Hope this helps, not trying to interfere, just help.
A fellow CSCC instructor.
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