(((((((Everybody))))))))
Most of you have heard my submission sob story from 2012, so I won't repeat it, just say that sometimes things turn around when you least expect it. For me that involved writing another book, getting a new agent, and having a few dark nights of the soul along the way.
And for every milestone we reach, there are more disappointments down the road.
But just getting to editors' desks — that's a huge milestone and validation, I think.
Whip, Mandy has good advice. I'd also check with your agent, to see if she/he thinks it's worthwhile to go for it. Since you have several R & Rs, maybe there's a way to consolidate the feedback without compromising the plot, voice, etc.?
What hester and Mandy said. My agent was pretty forthcoming about which editor critiques she agreed with. If yours is, too, that could be helpful.
"The book starts too early/slowly" is such a common critique — probably for the reason Joy cited. It's hard to evaluate it without reading those first 50 pages, and possibly the entire book to see how the first 50 set everything up. Granted, if the editor didn't read the whole book, she won't realize how it all fits together. Then again, she may be assuming that readers will stop where she did — in which case,
for her, the opening isn't doing its job of enticing the reader to continue, even if it's doing other important things.
So my question would be: Have other readers found the opening a bit slow or unwieldy? If not, this could be a total non-issue. If so, perhaps there's a way to make it more deft without chopping the whole thing off. She does say "significantly condensing," which wouldn't mean eliminating it entirely. Still, that's a big step, one you would
really need to be on board with.
hester, good luck on the R&R!
