Rejection
The publishing industry is nuttier than usual these days. Agents are confounded by what will sell and publishers by what to buy. Their business is in flux like so many others. The amount of fiction published in 2008 is down 11% from 2007 and trends are flying south for 2009.
So what do I do? I put on my honky horn, flappy shoes and big rubber nose deciding that 2009 will be a great year to publish my first novel.
Well, let me tell you folks. Nobody really appreciates a good clown anymore.
Here’s the score: I wrote Book One. No sale so far. I wrote Book Two. I am now sending queries door to door along with my heart. Then one agent suggested that if I would edit Book One, he’d take another look. So while beginning Book Three, I am also doing that edit to Book One. It’s a lot of work chasing that flickering candle.
This morning I received a rejection on Book Two from an agent who just wasn’t “drawn in.” She only asked for two pages. Boy oh boy, if she had only seen page three …
Of course, the real issue may be that I write drivel and who wants 80,000 words of that?
Whether it’s good or whether it’s bad, I have a tough decision to make: if nobody buys it, then nobody reads it so is it worth my time to do it?
As with most writers, the answer is yes. So I will don the fright wig and greasepaint one more day, and get back to work here on the back nine.
