Winter Break

The first hurdle is getting past the query stage, to have a literary agent ask for a partial manuscript. Only three times have I taken the next step, to send a full after a partial, which was a rush in its own way even though all three attempts were ultimately rejected. Maybe having a decent query letter is a moral victory, but on the rocky road to publishing, it's only a tiny step. Some have said the writing was good, the characters fleshed out, but it is always the same old "tight market" excuse at the end.

I'm working on a fifth manuscript, with partials and fulls out on two earlier novels. All this querying and rejection is getting to me. The only solution is to focus on the current WIP and read even more - to research what sort of drivel is marketable and head in that direction. I started writing because I could not find anything worth reading. If I want to be published, I will have to write something that I would not bother with if I found it in a bookstore, because that is what is selling. Before publishing worthwhile prose, perhaps an author has to pay their dues with the same old same old that publishing houses are most comfortable with. Don't know if I will write like that, though. I'll probably just keep writing what I like for the pleasure of it, and keep trying to break into the industry. Life is long, and I am not so old.

Word on the street is that literary agents go into a sort of hiatus during December because of the holidays. I suspect that some agents go into a hiatus whenever they are swamped with material, and then exit the break by ignoring whatever they did not get to. I've been waiting - well, not anymore - on Sally Wofford-Girand since October, 2004 (partial), Ethan Ellenberg since February (full), Julia Lord since April (partial), Matt McGowan and Susan Golomb since May (partials), Robert Guinsler since March (full), and Andrea Cirillo since September (full with requested edits). As a courtesy, I would expect a reply, especially since I included a SASE for a response. Following up has proven to be pointless, because my e-mails have been just as ignored as the manuscripts. Must be the New York state of mind - rudeness is not a fault, just a way of life.