Thursday, November 26, 2009

Agent Horror Story #1

Since I've been writing and querying, trying to get published, I've done a lot of querying. Most of those queries, thus far, have ended in a form-letter rejection. That's a little annoying, to be honest, but nothing especially traumatic.

Some of the queries have resulted in a partial request. My Horror Story #1 features one of these.

This agent was kind of near and dear to me... I followed her blog, left comments and well-wishes due to some news in her life, and she commented back on mine. I really felt like I had a connection with her, even though it was entirely virtual and totally tenuous. I got excited when she let me know that she would be reviewing my partial.

When it came close to the time she was going to review my partial, tragedy struck and she had to take two months off of work to take care of herself. I was trying to be understanding, but when it's your dreams on the line, it tends to drive you beyond crazy to be in limbo. Other queries came in and out, but I had my heart kind of set on this agent.

Then, on the day before my birthday, I received an email. It was a rejection of my partial.

Was it a nice letter, with a snippet of advice or a tiny nugget of insight, given the fact that I had effectively networked with her?

Nope. Form letter.

I had a birthday party the next day that I had to put on a brave face for. I received a few books as gifts, and I had to give them to my roommate to hide, because even the sight of a book was hurtful. I felt like my boyfriend just broke up with me (even though I'm a confirmed bachelorette right now), or like the kid from Little Miss Sunshine who found out he was colorblind and therefore disqualified to be a fighter pilot. A bit of my dream died that day, and I was heartbroken.

I suppose it worke dout for the best, as the agent recently changed the focus of her business and is no longer representing clients, and she still had clients that hadn't sold their manuscripts.

1 comment:

  1. Ouch. Keep at it, as long as Horror story #2 isn't about you self-publishing I'll keep my hopes up for your success.

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