megwrites | Mighty Casey has struck out.

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the road to publication

Mighty Casey has struck out.

Quick!Agent rejected me about an hour ago.

This means, officially, the Tower!Guy has bombed completely. I've got one more place to send it, but I officially hold out no hope at all and expect rejection as well.

I guess it wasn't a good novel, but I have no idea what else I could do to make it better. I did my best. My best wasn't good enough. The cheery little lies they tell you in school don't cover these things.

Just have to write something else, hope it fares better.

I still love writing, but I don't love this bit at all. This is the painful bit. The part where you hurt and there's nothing you can do about it.

And just for the record? There is no skin thick enough for this, either. I defy anyone not to feel abject disappointment when they work for years at something and come to failure. I guess you just take it and move on.

Besides, it was just the first try. There are other novels. There will be other chances. Other rejections.

Maybe, eventually, there will be good news. Just not now.

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The rejections don't mean the novel wasn't good. More likley, it meant that the novel wasn't perceived as being right for the market right now. You're an excellent writer. Keep writing. Keep sending out novels. You will break through. Then, when the publishers start requesting other novels from you, you'll have them ready and waiting.

Thanks. I'm glad to have your vote of confidence. I'm hoping it is the market, but I didn't actually get any specific feedback on the novel. So maybe it's the market, maybe it's me. As much as I wish that agents would let me know what it was that made them reject me, I also know that it's not their job to give me feedback.

You will break through. Then, when the publishers start requesting other novels from you, you'll have them ready and waiting.

Your mouth --------> God's ears. Just sayin'. :)

Probably not something that you want to hear right now - but this is neither the end of your journey, nor the beginning of it. It's a rest stop.

Even when you get accepted and published and reviewed and you get actual honest-to-goodness FANMAIL in your inbox... it's not guarantee of anything, it's no guarantee that you will ever do it AGAIN. So every single thing any of us ever submitted is subject to this - the rejection blues, the "not for us right now" letter, the "take it away now and come back with something else". I have a short story I love to bits which simply can't find a home - not because it's bad, because it just doesn't FIT, quite, at any place where I've tried to send it. I guess I'll just have to live with it.

In the meantime... go on. Put a band-aid over the scrapes and scratches, try to staunch the bleeding, wait for the scabs to come... and go on.

We've all been here. We'll be here again. From one writer to another... courage. And sympathy.

Probably not something that you want to hear right now - but this is neither the end of your journey, nor the beginning of it. It's a rest stop.

Actually, it's exactly what I want to hear. If I really thought this was the end and there would be nothing left, you'd be reading my version of "goodbye cruel world". I'm pretty sure that this is just one of those set backs you have to face up to when you go at this.

I mean, who gets it right on the first try anyway?

It does not mean the novel wasn't good. It could mean any number of things, from not the right time to just didn't hit someone the right way.

If you want a prime example, babe, I'll send you Breathe, to read, I swear. Or Thirteen. Anything of mine.

You keep working. You keep trying. You put this one away and maybe, in a few months, take another look at it. Maybe you'll want to change it, or not. That's your call. In the meantime, you keep working because if there's anything I know, it's that you're a writer.

Thanks.

I'd love to read Breathe, actually. :)

I have every intention of continuing to work, just not on this. I've done all I can. Either the market is bad or I am. It all comes to the same conclusion: I need to try something different and try harder.

But thanks for the support. It means a lot coming from you. :)

Your novel is good. Trust me! It's good and this agent wouldn't have requested it if said agent didn't sense that it was good. I attended a writer's conference yesterday and an editor from Simon & Schuster talked about how tough the market is right now.

The agent may have decided not to take on the project but that's not to say that another agent wouldn't take it on. Keep sending it out and in the meantime, you can keep writing. 2009 has many more surprises in store. You never know! :o)

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad that you liked it.

I don't have anywhere else to send it out to, aside from the publishers directly. But I am optimstic. Maybe the project I'm starting work on now will come to something. Or maybe I'll make some revision later on and that will make a different.

The support really helps. And I hope you're continuing to work on your writing! I'm still bound and determined that I will have a signed copy of one of your novels in my little hand. :)

I like your plan--you'll keep writing but know that this novel hasn't reached a dead end. You put too much love and time and sweat into this story. It will see the light of day. :)

As for having a signed copy of my novel in your hand, I'm hoping I can get you a rough copy. I've only revised about 19% of it so far but I'm determined to finish it this year.

We're in this together! :)

Why do you think it bombed? Why are you giving up on it so soon? First of all, you got some great responses to your query and someone requested the full--right out of the gate. That's excellent. How many agents have you queried so far? Right now, it seems like you've only just started. Have faith in your writing and keep working at this.

I've queried about twenty five. I can't find anymore who accept the fantasy genre. Well, technically, I could probably find someone who's listing on AgentQuery says they accept fantasy but their ENTIRE client list is all non-fiction and books about hard boiled detectives or something. And if I couldn't even impress the genre agents, I doubt someone who's looking for the next Patricia Cornwell is going to even give my query a glance after they see the words "my 82,000 word fantasy novel".

Of course, if I've missed something (I searched on all the search engines and places I could find - AgentQuery, LitMatch, Publishers Marketplace as well as the Writer's Marketplace) or someone that I should be looking at, I'd love to know. I'm willing to try again, provided I know that something is different.

It just seems to me (like I said to

fairmer) that either the novel wasn't good or the market wasn't good. It comes to the same result. I came up to bat, and I did a good job of slicing air and not much else. Whether that was my fault or it was because the market is just horrendous doesn't really matter much in practical terms.

I'm not giving up on writing, I'm giving up on this one novel (well, sort of). I just need to try a different book, a different tack, a different set of agents, a different genre. Maybe I need another five or ten or fifty years to get good as a writer.

I'm not giving up, I'm just conceding that presenting this project in this way is not successful and I need to do something different. Because that's the definition of insanity, you know? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time.

Just curious: have you tried any YA agents? Remember that writing conference I mentioned in my original post in this thread? Agents are looking for fantasy, at least a lot of YA agents are. Just a thought.

Also, I'll email you any other names and you can check it against your list. There may be some duplicates but you never know. Like I said, we're in this together. I want to help any way I can because your novel isn't at a dead end. :)

Well, the novel isn't YA, but there does seem to be a crossover in YA agents who are willing to represent adult fantasy. I think I remember you posting that as well!

And please! Send me that list as soon as you can. I'd love to know any names I missed!

Thanks so much for being such a great friend. I don't know what I'd do without you. I'll keep trying with this novel as much as I can, but I do know that there will come a time when - if it doesn't sell for whatever reason - I will need to write other things and come back for it later.

25 agents is a really good start, but there have to be more than that! I queried 33 agents, and that was just for YA and children's books in science fiction and fantasy. I encourage you to keep trying the agents who list fantasy, even if their client list doesn't bear it out. Have you checked this list? http://www.katfeete.net/writing/agents.html

You may also need to consider that it's not even this book's "fault," but the fact that it's the first in a proposed trilogy that is offputting to agents right now. You should totally move forward with a new project, but I'd still keep this one circulating. And failing that, maybe you can drop it into some publisher's slush piles. By the time they get around to reading it in two years, the industry may have bounced back :)

If you want to e-mail me your agent list, I'll see if I can recommend some different names. I know a few newer agents just starting out, and I think they'd be worth querying.

I have faith in your work and I admire your attitude, but don't be quick to abandon something you've worked so hard on. And remember, you did get some people interested in the ms from your query, so you're doing a lot right!

Also, I just ran across this story, and thought you might find it inspirational: http://reviewerx.blogspot.com/2009/05/pub-story-saundra-mitchell.html

Wow, this is a BRIGHT pink comment screen. Ouchie.

Uhm, anyway, what

ecmeyer said, sort of. Obviously, you know best what you want to do, but surely there are more agents out there who take fantasy. You got some really good responses, and I don't think that you've tapped the market y et, anyway. Also, you coul dalways sub to an actual publisher's slushpile. (I'm hesistant to say "Because that was my plan," but it was.)

The comment screen should be white. Hmm. I'll check the CSS to see if something has gone awry. Lord knows with my sorry HTML skills something probably has.

As for the agents, I'm not sure there are anymore. I did as thorough a job of researching as I knew how to do. I checked websites, I checked the Writer's Marketplace books, I checked with friends I know who did managed to get an agent, I read blogs, I did everything I could think of.

If I missed something, please let me know. Obviously, you were successful so you probably do know something I don't.

I just think that the fact that everyone rejected it, even the people who responded positively, means that either a) the novel wasn't good or b) the novel wasn't good for this current market. One is my fault, the other isn't. Both come to the same result as I see it. It means that the novel's got no where to go and as much as I love the novel and am proud of it, if it can't go anywhere, I have to move on. It's not enough to be a writer who just concentrates on one piece.

I want some kind of professional career out of this, which means I have to be able to write more than one novel. I can't let my job be writing this one book. I have to write lots books. Hopefully, one will make it.

I'm still toying with whether or not to submit directly to a publisher. I'm a complete newbie as this, so I'm not sure if I'd know how to deal with editors and the publishing folks professionally and correctly without a go between. I'd like to think I could - but I have no idea what my boundaries and rights and responsibilities as the author would be.

I mean, for instance, let's say that by some miracle some novel of mine did make it to the show and I hated the cover art - do I have any standing to challenge that? Or if I have a disagreement about what the editor wants to change and I don't (or vice versa), how far can I protest? What am I allowed to do and not do.

My reasoning being that an agent is (at least ideally) the author's advocate, and thus knows how mediate these things. I hope.

Of course, what do I know? :)

(Yay, white comment screen!)

Okay, I confess that I don't know how many agents you queried, but I got the impression that you'd queried about 5-10? Ish? If only because you've gotten all your responses back, and I still haven't gotten all of mine back yet.

But there are 37 agents on agentquery.com who are members of AAR and are seeking new clients, that specifically take fantasy. (Advanced search.) My initial agent-hunting plan was "look for agents who rep everything I write, but upon unilateral rejection, look for agents who rep what I have written." If I have a mistaken impression about the number you've queried, I apologize.

I was also willing to broaden my search outside of AAR agents if they were old school (AAR membership as a benchmark of quality has only become relatively recent, from my understanding, and you have to have been a practicing agent for 5 years to join, I think, so the young 'uns are excluded), and who didn't have any Preditors & Editors/Absolute Write warnings. You may feel differently about that, but unchecking the AAR box does broaden the search to 82 agents. Verifying their coolness is a chore, but I made a deal with myself that I couldn't give up before 50 queries.

So, if you've done or thought of all of this, and discarded these things, I apologize for butting in, but for serious, you've done so well in such a short time with the agent hunt, that it seems like it can't be over.

As for subbing to publishers sans agent: my understanding is that when you get a publisher on the line--i.e., with offer in hand--it's a much easier thing to get an agent by calling to say, "Random House wants to buy my book and I need an agent. Are you interested?" I've heard of several people who did it that way, and maybe the first agent didn't take them, necessarily, but they always found *someone*--and someone good--to take them on. So you don't have to do the whole thing alone, you just have to get into the submissions pile. (This was my Plan B.)

Overall, I agree, you shouldn't be putting All The Eggs in this basket, but you can move on to writing the next one and keep the MS circulating.

Of course, now I go read the rest of the comments and see you've queried 25 agents. But still. I think I have 40 folks on my A-list spreadsheet, which is more YA oriented and less fantasy oriented, but I'm happy to send you the sheet if you want it. Overall, in your position, I'd still be trying with my second and third string, but that's because I'm an Aries. ;) Or something. Actually, it's because I started out in short fiction, and I don't know how to stop sending stuff around, I think.

(BTW, I didn't even try to hawk my first book, being so fraught with misery after my first readers sent their feedback, so kudos to you for having the cajones.)

I would love it greatly if you sent me that list. Obviously I've missed some people or excluded folks that I shouldn't have! I confess that I may have been too picky this time around. All the ones I queried were AAR agents, because most of the research I did said to look for that, but now with what you just said, there are probably some I should give a second look to.

I will also say that I didn't have a first or second string. I just had a list of agents that I thought I had the best chance of getting some kind of deal with.

But if I've missed something, I definitely want to go back and revisit the issue.

That's funny you should mention signs. I'm a Taurus. Supposedly we're supposed to be really stubborn. My fiancee is such an Aries, though. I don't know that I believe in the Zodiac, but sometimes, I can't help but wonder...

I'm totally up for any help I can get. I'm willing to step up to bat again with other agents.

And thanks so much. I totally owe you.

Whoops! Now I'm the one who didn't read all the responses. Well, I'll still send you the list even though I'm sure there will be duplicates. :)

I'm sending you the email, and one other avenue, which you may've already tried--but it makes for fascinating reading.

hey, sorry i'm just now seeing this. the rejections aren't true feedback about your work. they are just opinions and mostlty totally uninformed ones because they didn't all read your book.

if this is indeed a strikeout, it's just the first inning. don't let the bastards get you down.

Thanks. I'll try to keep that in mind.

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Mighty Casey has struck out.

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