Odd Connection, Excellent Rejection
Jul. 2nd, 2007 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_pretentiousI'm just back from the annual family reunion in the Adirondacks, the right and true part of the world where the air smells like air and hummingbirds outnumber cars.
For a few years now, one my cousins has been dating the daughter of a Famous Memoirist. Until recently, they were seeing each other in a casual, non-exclusive sort of way, and at reunions past Cousin T would have some other girlfriend with him for the weekend the whole time he was telling me about how he thought he could get the Famous Memoirist to read my manuscript. And I would imagine how well that would go over with me, if I were in the Famous Memoirist's shoes: my daughter's hippie boyfriend, who in any given season is also sleeping with three to five other women, asks me to read his cousin's manuscript, which is 900 pages long and in a genre I neither read nor write, while at home I have a huge pile of fan mail and manuscripts from thousands of other people who also want a little piece of me. What would I say? Something non-committal and polite. And what would I do? Spend my time on my own writing, once the young man had gone home.
But something has shifted, and now T and M (the Famous Memoirist's daughter) are talking about marriage, and seem to be seeing each other exclusively. They may be moving to California together. M came to our family reunion for the first time and wanted to hear all our old family stories. She and I really hit it off, and she wanted to know all about my writing--even after I told her what it was. When she asked if I had a manuscript with me, I handed her "Closing Arguments" (the Bob novella), and she said if she thought her father might like it, she'd pass it on to him. I don't expect anything to happen on this front, but it would be nice to be surprised.
When I got home, a very encouraging rejection from Agent/Bachelorette #3--whom you may remember from this post--was waiting in my email. She's just moved to a new agency and won't be able to spend as much time helping writers revise as she thinks I would need with this book, but she likes the Big Book, urges me not to give up on it, and says there are other agents who would be in a position to take it on as is. Okay. Considering that she'd have been entirely within her rights to send a form rejection saying it didn't meet her needs at this time, I'm very pleased. It's tempting to translate this rejection as saying, If I hadn't just changed jobs, I'd have said yes. She comes very close to saying that. And she's totally right about the pacing problem. If I still don't have an agent yet when the Little Book is ready to be shopped around, I'll be querying her again.
For a few years now, one my cousins has been dating the daughter of a Famous Memoirist. Until recently, they were seeing each other in a casual, non-exclusive sort of way, and at reunions past Cousin T would have some other girlfriend with him for the weekend the whole time he was telling me about how he thought he could get the Famous Memoirist to read my manuscript. And I would imagine how well that would go over with me, if I were in the Famous Memoirist's shoes: my daughter's hippie boyfriend, who in any given season is also sleeping with three to five other women, asks me to read his cousin's manuscript, which is 900 pages long and in a genre I neither read nor write, while at home I have a huge pile of fan mail and manuscripts from thousands of other people who also want a little piece of me. What would I say? Something non-committal and polite. And what would I do? Spend my time on my own writing, once the young man had gone home.
But something has shifted, and now T and M (the Famous Memoirist's daughter) are talking about marriage, and seem to be seeing each other exclusively. They may be moving to California together. M came to our family reunion for the first time and wanted to hear all our old family stories. She and I really hit it off, and she wanted to know all about my writing--even after I told her what it was. When she asked if I had a manuscript with me, I handed her "Closing Arguments" (the Bob novella), and she said if she thought her father might like it, she'd pass it on to him. I don't expect anything to happen on this front, but it would be nice to be surprised.
When I got home, a very encouraging rejection from Agent/Bachelorette #3--whom you may remember from this post--was waiting in my email. She's just moved to a new agency and won't be able to spend as much time helping writers revise as she thinks I would need with this book, but she likes the Big Book, urges me not to give up on it, and says there are other agents who would be in a position to take it on as is. Okay. Considering that she'd have been entirely within her rights to send a form rejection saying it didn't meet her needs at this time, I'm very pleased. It's tempting to translate this rejection as saying, If I hadn't just changed jobs, I'd have said yes. She comes very close to saying that. And she's totally right about the pacing problem. If I still don't have an agent yet when the Little Book is ready to be shopped around, I'll be querying her again.
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Date: 2007-07-03 03:27 am (UTC)Beautifully put.
I will definitely be revising the Big Book. Finishing the Little Book will probably come first. No amount of revision will make the Big Book still good AND still itself AND short enough to be easy to sell--as long as it remains itself, it will be at least somewhat longer than the current market favors. The Little Book, however, can be itself and short in the first draft, and good in the second draft.