The Daily Rejection

[pollymilton]

Found out he had a special needs child also, which might help. Or hurt, if he disagrees with what I say.

Yup. That is always the problem, isn't it? Depends if that kid had sim. special needs or different.

Ms. Carleree, I could go with "Each No Means You're Closer to your YES..." with birds and a sunset on a greeting card. I'll send that to you and Hathor.

MY ideal card would just say "F&*ing read this book and obey!"

[Carleree]

If I get a choice, I want yours Polly

[Nova Odyssey]

Originally Posted by Hathor

Good luck to all (and hugs for those getting Rs).

I heard from the editor. He told me that the "personal experience" books in the field weren't selling, but he might be interested if my book contained concrete, useful information.

The agents who looked at my book who told me anything specific said they would like a personal story, and to leave out all the concrete, useful information.

Sigh. Difference between large publishers and small?

Oh well, I emailed back. I'm not quite sure what "interested in considering your book" means -- but it's better than a kick in the teeth. The book I wrote is what he says he would consider, anyway.

hopefully the editor will clarify what "might be interested" really means before you spend time on what to do next!

[Carleree]

My internet provider has been messing with my account, oh joy, which means any query responses sent to my address bounced back. What am I supposed to do about that?

[triceretops]

Originally Posted by Carleree

My internet provider has been messing with my account, oh joy, which means any query responses sent to my address bounced back. What am I supposed to do about that?

You might try our tech thread for a diagnosis and fix. We have some real experts over there that might pin-point your problem. Good luck with straightening things out. (I keep getting a performance alert--seems my computer can't take the strain or something).

Tri

[Carleree]

Tri,

There was a mix-up when I moved on the weekend and the accidentally cancelled my email account instead of transferring it. The internet provider is fixing it now, but it could take 24 hours. So...hope I don't get any rejections/requests until tomorrow

[Hathor]

Carleree,

If this happened to me, once I had working email again, I would requery those I hadn't heard from, with a short explanation. If they haven't responded yet, they can disregard.

I would think the slightest possibility that you missed something would make this the best course. The situation would drive me nuts, anyway. Something similar happened when an exclusive ended without me hearing anything, I emailed, and then my phone went on the fritz. (Oh, the benefits of having Verizon Fios. When it goes out, one loses telephone, Internet, and TV at the same time. If you're unlucky, your damn battery also starts screeching every 15 minutes. They told us, "Oh, yes, sometimes they do that.")

*************************
The editor wants chapters. Here goes nothing... I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, given my track record. At least, he understands the basic premise of my book and hasn't been turned off (yet). I'm sounding like Eeyore, aren't I?

This comes just in time. I'm out of town visiting relatives. It will be great to tell them that an editor is reviewing my book now People tend to say things like, "Well, you've written this book. When is it coming out?" or "Is it on Amazon?" Such comments are usually followed by, "You know, you could self-publish..." My usual response is to groan and take a hefty slurp of whatever drink is available. I need a better response, I suppose.

[Carleree]

Good advice, Hathor. Thanks

[Quickbread]

Hathor, good luck! I know what you mean about things relatives say. I've been working on my novel for like 6 years, and I hate mentioning it now because the process has taken so long. People probably roll their eyes and say, there she goes, working on her (insert finger quote marks in air here) "NOVEL" again.

Carleree, that sucks about your email situation. I think a requery labeled as such with a very short sentence of explanation/apology isn't out of line. You could also wait a couple more weeks to give agents a longer chance to respond first. That might narrow your list of people to requery.

Good luck Tri and Nova and everyone else querying. Here's hoping for good news all around!

[Carleree]

I'll wait till next week before I requery Thank you all for your suggestions.

[pollymilton]

got a nibble from Fine Print....

let's all cross our bits, shall we?

Hathor - that is AWESOME.

[Carleree]

GO POLLY!!! *crosses bits*

[pollymilton]

Thanks hon. Actually sent to S. Evans, who forwarded it to their newest young agent. We'll see, I guess.

[Quickbread]

Awesome, Polly!

[LadyA]

Originally Posted by pollymilton

Thanks hon. Actually sent to S. Evans, who forwarded it to their newest young agent. We'll see, I guess.

woohooo - way to go! Everything crossed x

[Hathor]

That's great, polly. I'd say I'd cross assorted body parts, but they're already in a perpetual state of being cross. Wait, that didn't sound right.

I tried to fix some formatting issues with my chapters before sending them to the editor. I'd forgotten how this book is afflicted by bad formatting spirits. Why else would the book, when I try to switch everything to strictly 12 point, decide that I really wanted to also switch part of the book to Bookman, a font I last used two years ago? Then there was the half hour I spent trying to eliminate a blank last page.

I think everything is all right now. I suspect the problem is that I had chapters in separate files, written at different times so perhaps different formatting. Then I had cut-and-paste quotes with different notions, bullet lists, footnotes then converted to end notes, and so on.

I was beginning to suspect typing everything anew might be easier. Word must simply not like me. I know I'm not too fond of it. Perhaps my computer heard me talking about getting a Mac...

The discussion last night fortunately wasn't on my book for too long. My husband's cousin started talking about his affinity for hookers at one point in his life -- and for some reason, that proved to be a more interesting topic.

Wait, let me edit that. It was the cousin's affinity, not my husband's. I really shouldn't try to post anything before my morning coffee...

[pollymilton]

Anyone entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest? Opens tonight at 12 midnight.

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=332264011

Just me and 4999 others. I think my chances are, to be modest, AWESOME!!!!!

P.

[Carleree]

Best of luck, modest Polly. You're a shoe in

[carefulwithwords]

I entered ABNA last year. Made it to the semi-finals (top 50). Got a really nice review from pub weekly. Am entering the same (much revised) ms this year. Though it's also sitting with 4 agents right now. But if any agent offers come in, you can always pull out of the contest by Mar 20. Chances of winning are only slightly better than a lottery ticket, but still tons of fun to play. And the forums become like a bad car wreck when the axe comes down on 80% each month.

In rejection news:

Got a rejection today with a nice closing para:
"As a result of a high volume of submissions, we cannot offer a detailed reason for rejection. If you are receiving a lot of form rejections, you should consider looking up the blog QueryShark, kept by a prominent NYC agent, to see if perhaps your query, instead of your project, is to blame."
::::eyeroll::::
Gee thanks. I never heard of QueryShark before. Der.

[pollymilton]

Wow Careful, that's excellent!!! (the ABNA part)

I like it that they used the word "blame" - too bad they couldn't work in "shame" and "failure" too!

[carefulwithwords]

Originally Posted by pollymilton

I like it that they used the word "blame" - too bad they couldn't work in "shame" and "failure" too!

LOL Yeah, this made me miss "it's not you, it's me."

Good luck in ABNA, Polly!

[pollymilton]

Oh, I just figured ABNA is a big old "why not?" - which is kind of my motto right now. To you too! Keep us posted.

[carefulwithwords]

Originally Posted by pollymilton

Oh, I just figured ABNA is a big old "why not?" - which is kind of my motto right now. To you too! Keep us posted.

It is totally a big ol' why not. I don't know why some people get their undies in such a wad over it. Though I'm probably glad they do...cause they're probably smarter than me and therefore better writers so I'm glad they don't enter.


Since I'm joining in the thread here after being a longtime lurker, I'll post my stats. I'm on round 3 of querying this novel (Literary/Commercial women's fic with gay issues).
1st round was last year this time. I sent out like 100 queries, I got one nibble for a full and ended up a form R. I took time off to see how ABNA went. An agent contacted me through my website when they saw my excerpt up on the Amazon website (nibble #2) and asked for the full. Ann3 R1c3's agent, btw. Anyway, that ended in a form R about 1 month later. I started revising. Entered another contest. Was shortlisted. Felt better about myself. Queried round 2. Got one full request. Went to the award ceremony for contest, and talked to one of my judges (a p3ngu1n publishing director). He gave ground breaking feedback. Agent who had full sent R&R with mirror feedback. So I revised Nov and Dec. Finished last week of Dec. Sent full back to agent.
Also sent out 16 new queries on Dec 29.
Got 3 full requests
2 partial requests
5 form R.
6 pending?
Send out three new queries today and got the above R back.

Already got back one form R on one of the fulls two weeks ago. Not really surprised though, cuz that guy requests like 9% of everything he's sent according to Query Tracker. And responds within a week.

Anyway, mind if I join in?

[Hathor]

Always nice to get new people here

I can't decide whether to enter ABNA or not. I'm not sure my query/pitch is strong enough yet.

****************************************

I finally straightened out the formatting problems in the file with the first three chapters of the nonfiction. I would correct, save, make other changes, and then the original errors would creep back in. (I still can't figure out what happened. Best guess is evil spirits...or a brief flirtation with Styles.)

I swore, my husband swore, we both fought with the file, and it finally looks OK. I sent it off to the editor who emailed back to say he'd get to it in a week or two. I hope it doesn't spontaneously mutate to something squirrel-y in the meantime.

It sure wasn't my weekend. Between the Sisyphean format hell and both the Ravens and the Caps losing (the latter to the, ugh, Penguins), I've been happier.

[carefulwithwords]

Originally Posted by Hathor

Always nice to get new people here

I can't decide whether to enter ABNA or not. I'm not sure my query/pitch is strong enough yet.

Think of it this way: The pitch cut is an 80% cut. That means there's a 20% chance of making it through. A typical query to an agent has an average of what, 2-4% of turning into a request. Your ABNA chances for the pitch round are much better than your everyday query. Last year, during those month-long waits for the cuts, I spent a lot of time lurking on the forums over there. And I'm not literary genius, but the crap that made it to round 2 didn't exactly make me feel like I'd accomplished anything to be among them. In fact, it kinda made me wonder if we were picked at random (seriously, does Amazon really read 10,000 queries in 4 weeks?).

That's not to suggest you should be complacent about your pitch. Just sayin' don't let perfection keep you from entering. Think of it as a game. Last year, that's really how I felt about it and my "goal" was the PW review. When I got that review I was through the roof thrilled. And ok I admit, once I made the top 50, I was pretty bummed when I didn't get that call for the top 3. By that time, I was feeling pretty durn pleased with myself.