All right, all you anonymice, here's one more rejection from me. I've got the novel out with one more agent and also an editor at a small publishing house (most likely a no-go). So, I think I am drawing to the close of this particular push toward my dream. I feel a little sheepish about this statement. And I hate to be contrary to the philosophy of "The Secret," but I'm forced to be a realist. I'm going to give it a rest for awhile after the final rejections come in, and start on something new. Or not. Whatever. I'm a wee depressed at the moment, so nothing feels very interesting. Maybe, a nap.Anyway, here's the latest:
Dear Writer, Rejected
I would have loved to have loved this novel.
But I just didn't fall for the voice as much as I need to in these parlous fiction times. I hope one of the other readers is eager to represent the book. I've been wrong so many times on what might sell--countless. And I'd bet you can count on my being wrong on this one.
I do wish you great good success with the book.
Best, Agenty McAgent
Dear Writer, Rejected
I would have loved to have loved this novel.
But I just didn't fall for the voice as much as I need to in these parlous fiction times. I hope one of the other readers is eager to represent the book. I've been wrong so many times on what might sell--countless. And I'd bet you can count on my being wrong on this one.
I do wish you great good success with the book.
Best, Agenty McAgent
p.s. Parlous--really? Didn't that word go out with Henry VIII?
9 comments:
For what it's worth W, R, I was at it full time for 15 years before I sold to Random House and HarperCollins last year. And I must admit, I was close to calling it a day by then...
Take a nap, a break, a drink, and don't decide today.
Listen, I don't think you should quit. You've gotten enough good feedback from agents and editors to know that you've got something. It may or may not work out with this book, but there's always the next one. And now you've got all these contacts. I KNOW how hard and deflating it is. But it's so imporant to make art, in these times, we need it more than ever. Just the simple act of sitting down and doing something thoughtful and creative that may or may not make you any money is an act of rebellion in our dumbass culture. It's fine to quit submitting, but don't quit writing. You're participating in a dialogue that sifts through the world and finds truth, humanizing, freeing truth and whittles it down and serves it up to the public...whether people are reading or not, we need this process to happen. It's the only thing that will save us.
Yikes, anyways! No but seriously, don't quit.
Thank Dog for you guys. Seriously.
do all your rejections have a common theme about the main character and his/her voice just not resonating with the agent? i don't think you should quit, but maybe you should work on a new project with a completely different type of character, unlike one you have ever written before. a vacation from this character you have spent too much time with. you need to see new people.
One of these times Lucy is going to let you kick that football, Chuck! :)
Do not give up. Not now. Not ever.
But it might be good to start something new while still plugging away with the finished novel - do you have anything else you're working on / wanting to work on?
I'm all for what the first anonymous said about the role and importance of art. Just got to keep doing it. Nothing else to be done. Those rejections though, and all that stuff about not loving it enough. It can wear a soul down. I'm really sorry for your pain. And don't you think that agent meant "perilous"? And don't you think a literary agent should be able to get the word right?
...and I, too, was sure sure *sure* that 2009 was the year I was going to sell that bitch.
It didn't work out for me, either. I'm very stressed and blue.
I'm giving myself two more weeks. And then I'm starting in on next year's bastard...
24 hour rule. That's it. That's all you get. Then pull up your big boy boxers and get writing. If it were easy everyone would be published.
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