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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.
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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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? :)
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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.
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(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.)
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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.
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