Lest anyone think you’ve been forgotten, I wanted to stop in and give a little update. I’m still submitting. Got requests for partials from a couple more agents, which is great. I have started working on a new book which I will talk about when I’m a little further into it. So pretty much status quo around here.
Tag Archives: queries
Lots of news
First and foremost, I want to share that I have finaled in the FF&P contest I entered! I am so excited and completely overwhelmed. Only the top three entries final so I know I’m no lower than 3rd. Now the finalists have been sent on to an agent from Curtis Brown who will do the final round of judging. I should know how I place around the 1st of December or so.
Second, an update on the querying process. I received another request for a partial, but it’s been rejected already and got 5 or so more rejections on the query itself. So no good news there, but I’m still plugging along. Besides now in my query letter I can say I was a finalist in a contest. đŸ™‚
An update
Just a quick update to everyone following along on my journey. Several queries have been sent. I have received 3 rejections total thus far and 2 requests for partials. Yay! For the requests not the rejections. Just clarifying.
Also that doesn’t include the submissions I already had out. So the count right now: 3 rejections, 3 partials and 1 full. I’ll take that count.
On rejection
Okay, so here’s the thing….rejection sucks.
What’s that? You were expecting some big eloquent blog post about the trials and tribulations of rejection in the writer’s life? Yeah, sorry. Not going to happen. Mainly because despite the multitude of resources, blogs, writer’s handbooks, etc with all their differing takes on the subject, they all boil down to the fact that rejection sucks.
See, even though my idea was enough to get me a request for a partial from a prestigious agent and a full from an editor with Kensington books, one form rejection on a query makes me doubt everything. And why should it? I mean Kensington freaking books wants to read my manuscript people! This is huge. Over the moon outstanding even.
But until I actually have an agent, I will keep querying. I will keep putting myself out there and taking the risk. And I will keep getting rejected. Okay, maybe not. Maybe today’s lightning fast rejection (it came back in less than 12 hours) was a fluke. Maybe everyone else will read my query and think it sounds awesome and ask for multitudes of pages. Maybe.
And part of me knows that the rejections that come after pages are read, after a full has been requested and rejected will be so much harder. I mean, how can they not like this thing that I poured a year of my life into? How dare they tell me it’s not for them? Then I’ll look back over it and think “oh, my god. This is horrible. How could I write such crap?” And my friends will smack me on the back of the head and tell me to get over it, because I rock, my book rocks, and my main character can kick your ass on any given day of the week.
You see that little niggling thread of doubt that has woven its way through this post? That is why rejection sucks. Writers doubt themselves constantly. We agonize, we analyze. And no matter how many people tell you what you do is awesome, that one rejection from someone who probably skimmed your letter and said, no kick ass heroines for me today, will always make you wonder if you can do this.
I know I can, and I’m not going to quit trying even if every query and all the pages I have out right now come back saying ‘not for me.’ So I guess you got the long post you were after even if it’s not very eloquent. But it still all boils down to…Rejection sucks.
Kathleen Collins 