Resolved To Another Year Of Futility

You won't get published if you quit trying, so you keep going.

On the other hand, chances are you'll never be published anyway, so all that trying is entirely in vain.

Contacting agents has become a hobby of mine, which puts the process in a different light. Some people build model railroads. They have no hope of ever being employed in the rail industry, but that makes no difference to those who pursue the activity.

On Monday, the publishing industry cranks up for another year, a year expected to be as bad as ever. Fewer new titles will be bought, fiction will be an even harder sell, but if trying to be published is your favorite past-time, it makes no difference. The queries will go out and the rejections will come in and the circle will spin around for the length of 2009.

Scott Gould at RLR Associates will still not respond to my queries, in spite of the SASE enclosed. I'll still be waiting to hear from Laura Blake Peterson at Curtis Brown. It's been over three months already, and I don't expect things to change.

And on Monday, I'll send off a new query to Stephen Barbara, who will be starting his first day as an agent at Foundry Literary + Media. Chris Park never sent back the SASE, so I'll try someone else. Nothing changes.