Never did I think I'd ever hear a word after a year - or more. My Easter gift for 2006 is two rejection letters, one from Julia Lord and the other from Robert Guinsler at Sterling Lord Literistic.
Very kind of Sterling Lord to pop for the extra two cents postage. When I sent the full manuscript, the post office was not even suggesting that they were going to raise rates. Julia Lord had to cover the full postage - I assume they must have lost the SASE I sent with the sample chapters.
The usual boilerplate stuff, by the way, in both rejections. One loved the writing but was not in love with the story. The other liked the premise and the characters, but did not fall in love with the writing. As an author, that tells me that there is nothing that can be changed to make the novel better. It is only a question of finding the agent that is taken by both story and story-telling. If only I could merge the two agents together and make it whole.
The subject matter of the manuscript is somewhat controversial, the style more literary than commercial. How many times has an agent written of 'being torn' but ultimately taking a pass? Good enough to publish, but maybe not marketable, and thus not right for their list, produced as it was by an unproven (unpublished) writer.
They say it is a subjective business. It sure is.
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