In the last three days, I have three rejections from agents. Two were personal and the other a form. One agent said that she was very tempted as she loved the period, and thought it well-written BUT she already had too many clients writing in the period and was not prepared to take me on as she wasn't sure about the market. The other agent said that she thought it highly inventive but her gut reaction was that it would be difficult to place.
Agents have to not only love mss but they have to see commercial opportunities. They live and die by commission. It is not worth taking the time and trouble IF they do not see any clear cut market. So it is a matter of waiting for the last agent to reply and then resending it out to the next lot of agents. There is no point on giving up on a well written mss.
It may also be something that has to sit under the bed for awhile until the market opens up again on Rome.It could be over saturated. However, my husband is not letting the crows of doubt gather. He says -- keep sending it out as all it takes is one agent.
Once upon a time, I would have been gutted to get so many rejections, now I just think -- postage. And hopefully one day, they will be sorry to have passed me up.
I read something Julie Elizabeth Leto wrote on e-harl -- Don't write the book of your heart, write a book you can put your heart into. A subtle difference.
The annoying thing is that I thought there might be a market for this sort of book, but I guess not at the moment.
I will keep working on the saga -- something that I am enjoying more and more. It is fun to think -- I am going to have a twist here or there, and can I make this person cry. Or how can i make it worse for that person? How can hubris bring people down? And how can good people hurt each other without meaning to? It is different from a romance as the focus is different.
It is also different from writing the Romano-British mystery, although that taught me a lot about relationships.
So, it is with a deep breath that I go onwards. My eyes ever on the prize. I know my own writing is improving and that is surely something to be proud of.
4 comments:
Arrrgh! Well, they sound like good Rs anyway. Good luck with the next lot. And yeah, you've gotta kiss a lot of frogs before you get the agent.
Good to see my favourite phrase the "crows of doubt" is getting an airing elsewhere, though. Or maybe not.
In any case: Tag, You're It!
It's positive stuff - your writing isn't the problem, it's market saturation. So keep going!
And I'd love to see your duckling pics. They sound adorable!
I'm disappointed to hear your Roman mystery has been rejected - I was looking forward to reading it! Good luck, and please keep sending it out to agents, at least for the time being.
Many thanks for All your kind words.
The only thing is to keep going onwards. If it is sitting in the bottom of drawer, it is never going to get published. Hopefully I can find an agent who sees what I see in it...
In the meantime, I work on my saga which cuts across the decades of the 20th century. Most enjoyable to write.
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