Ask and ye shall receive....Rejection 2

In yesterday's post I merrily wrote that perhaps I'd hear from an agent this morning...guess what arrived in the post?

Rejection no.2. I had to smile.

As soon as I saw my own writing on the envelope, I just knew. I've always thought that if an agent is interested in seeing the rest of my ms they are going to very probably email (or even phone) me, not write. So anything coming through the post is likely to be bad news. I have heard of exceptions to this, but as a general rule I think it's probably true.

So what was this one like? Another personal letter, which is good. The agent basically said that although she liked my chapters she needed to feel absolutely in love with something to want to take it on. Totally fair enough. She also said something along the lines of 'I'm sure you'll be successful anyway,' which was probably one of those throwaway lines of consolation. If not, it does kind of beg the question: why didn't she want to take me on?!! But no, I get it. I don't feel bad about it either, remarkably. If I take her at her word, she liked it but not enough. I want my agent to fall in love with my work, I need them to be as excited by it as I am. It makes total sense.

I'm feeling weirdly confident about my writing at the moment. I don't mean this to sound big-headed, but I feel quietly sure that I will get somewhere eventually. With the confidence comes a realisation of just how far I've still got to go, but I do feel I can do it. My children's book is in great shape - I wouldn't have sent it out if I felt it wasn't - but I appreciate that I'm only a beginner at this and I've got a lot to learn. I think my chick lit novel has got some fab elements to it, but some parts truly, truly SUCK. It's going to take a lot of work and heartache before I start sending that out to anyone!

This is a great journey. I'm impatient as hell and I have times of seriously questioning my ability, but on the whole it all feels exactly what I should be doing. I'm in this for the long haul and Rejection no.2 is not going to change that. Neither will no.22 or no.42 - I'll just keep plugging away!

(Remind me of that occasionally, ok? If I get up to Rejection no.102 I might need to reassess...!)

Ok Universe, I asked for a response from another agent and I got it! Now can I have a positive response please?

Rejection No.1

So, I'd finally sent those letters + synopsis and first 3 chapters (of my kids' book) off to a bunch of carefully selected agents. The first reply took 9 days to arrive...

I'm a real writer! I got my first rejection!

I've been away for the last few days, so it fell to my other half to open the dread-letter and tell me the news. I felt more sorry for him, to tell the truth.

It was a personal rather than a form letter (good), and the agent said she liked my central character (good) and thought my writing had 'some lovely touches' (v v good!). HOWEVER, she said that due to the genre it would be difficult to place with a publisher as the market is so saturated with that type of book (damn and blast) and it would only appeal to girls (well, yeah).

Maybe she was just being nice, but I tend to think that she probably has a point. Then again, if she'd loved it then this may have all been irrelevant.

Decoded, I think she probably meant: 'Your writing doesn't totally suck, but I don't like it nearly enough to take you on'. Which is fair enough!

So how did I feel? Actually, ok. It was quite novel getting my first rejection letter - although I am sure as eggs is eggs that the novelty will wear off very quickly! I felt disappointed and a bit grumpy for about half an hour, then borrowed a dog and went for a long walk on a beach. This did the trick. After a couple of days to think about it, I do feel a little worried that maybe my book will be difficult to sell because of the reasons the agent outlined, but then again I'm not going to let this eat away at me too much at the moment. The most important thing to think is: HECK, I've written it, now I need to try and sell it and get on and write some more.

To that end, I've written another 1000 words of my adult novel and plotted out a second children's book. Not bad, huh?