When I discovered that the agent of one of my ‘mentor’ authors had moved to a new agency, I was thrilled. Having been rejected by one agent at her former agency, I thought it was all over, but now that she was at a new place? I could submit. So I did.
I sent the novel pitch and 10 pages, as per the instructions on her website and was dizzy with delight to be asked, two weeks later, for a full manuscript.
I’ve spent the past two weeks trying not to think about the fact that she had it. Then, last night, I got an email from her. She said lots of nice things (“It has an intriguing premise, and I found much to admire in the worldbuilding and writing”) BUT…She was also generous enough to point out a couple of things that made it a ‘no’ for her.
So I’m adding those to the list of things agents are flagging as not quite making it, for them.
I still can’t face revisions on this yet (I only really got the draft whipped into shape in October, so I need a little distance). So I’m putting it on the calendar for mid-January. I’ll go through all he feedback I get from agents and see what overlaps and what I might be able to (or willing to) do about it.
(K asked me what Plan B is, last night. It’s to write more, and to consider putting this out by myself. I don’t want to send it out if it’s not ready, but if I feel it’s ready, I’ll do it).
Meanwhile, I’m sending pages out to there more agents that I researched today. One is the agent for another one of the books I was reading while this one was incubating, and the other two are new agents I found on Chuck Sambuchino’s blog, who are interested in YA Sci-Fi.
So this project has been out to visit 16 agents so far and I’ve had 7 ‘no’ responses (more than half with helpful comments). 3 were only sent today and the other 6 will, I am sure, get to them eventually. The oldest “no response” is 2 months old and most of those are people I met at the Writer’s Digest Pitch Slam. I’m assuming they are, er, slammed with submissions as a result of their turn at the conference. I’ll maybe ping them in a month. But maybe not. Depending on how much I really connected with them.
And so we continue…
UPDATED: It’s interested to keep track of this stuff. I FELT like I’d been rejected a lot more than I actually have. Seven is quite a tiny number. Good for perspective. Also, this blog is making me realize I’m not submitting very often (apart from this project).
PROJECT: YA Spec Fic novel
SUBMITTED: 10/31/2016
REJECTED: 12/5/2016