Monday, September 24, 2007

Lack Of Engagement

Susan Ginsburg was intrigued by the premise. Of course she was intrigued, or she wouldn't have asked for the first fifty pages. The hook in the query got her.

But why has she passed on the manuscript? "I wasn't as engaged with your characters as I had hoped."

Couldn't relate to them, is that it? The historical atmosphere was there, but it was the people who were populating the imaginary world who weren't up to snuff.

I understand that sort of thing. There's many a novel I've picked up and put down after the first few chapters because I didn't care about the characters. If they solved their problem or found happiness or sunk into misery, it was all the same. I'm not a shopaholic New York City up and coming publishing industry chick on the go, and I don't care to read about them, yet there's reams of paper given over to chronicling the exploits of chicks in lit.

What else is there to do but keep querying until I find an agent who can relate?

Or maybe she was just politely saying that the writing sucked. You never can tell with these subjective things.

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