So if I ever snap one day and decide I want to ruin my future in publishing forever, I know just the query letter to send to one of my rejectors:
Dear [Agent],
You may remember me from my query letter regarding my 75,000-word YA ...
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Ouch! My first two rejections came in within five minutes of each other. Bam bam, just like that. One was from my first choice, and one was from someone I queried yesterday (who wasn't actually supposed to send rejections, but e-mailed me just to say that it wasn't a good fit. Double ouch.)
I am pleased to report that there were no tears involved. There's no crying in publishing.
As per Spring of Rejection and Heartbreak rules and regulations, I took two shots of vodka, one for each rejection. That sort of burns, by the way.
Oh well! Time to go back for more, for I am a masochist.
Y'all are just the nicest, most supportive bunch ever. <3 <3 <3 Thanks for all your crossed fingers!
AS SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD, I sent off my first query letter to my very first prospective agent yesterday afternoon. I actually meant to start tomorrow, but I read something on the agent's blog about how she was in a reading mood, and I had to go for it. (The query letter itself was all ready, and I have plenty of time to do the reread tomorrow like I planned.) I have not heard anything yet because of the holiday weekend, but according to the agent's website, she is generally pretty prompt about replying, so I'll probably get a response from her within the week.
Besides Kristin Nelson, I have three other agents on my short list - which will quickly become a misnomer when I have to find more, but those four are the ones who, out of everyone I've looked at, have the best credentials and suit me the best. I've only sent out just the one query at the moment, because Kristin Nelson has a quick turnaround time and always responds to every query, so I can gauge her response before I keep going. And hopefully I can stop worrying about the query and focus on the manuscript, Glory Hallelujah!
I am surprisingly not freaking out! I was very much so yesterday, but not now. Granted, my heart stops every time I hear my e-mail chime, but I've accepted that the crazy breakneck speed part is over, and this is the waiting part. And that's not all bad, because suddenly I have all this time to think, and put things in perspective, and all that fun stuff.
Earlier this year, I joked that because I would be finding out about JET and shopping the book in the spring, this was going to be the Spring of Rejection and Heartbreak. Of course, I was eliminated from the running for JET way earlier than I thought I would be, so I moaned to my roommate that the SoRaH started early. (To which she said, "At least it's already spring in Feburary?")
So even though I'm still (half-jokingly) calling it the Spring of Rejection and Heartbreak, I'm not being a pessimist about this whole thing. I think the most important thing to do is to keep my expectations within reason. I am trying not to think too far ahead, whether I'm envisioning an amazingly good turnout or a terrible one, and at this point, I'm just going to be psyched if Kristin Nelson is receptive to my query letter and wants to see my sample pages. That's my goal right now. I'll focus on that.
... I will in fact check my e-mail like a crazy person until then, though.
I JUST SENT A QUERY LETTER TO MY FIRST LITERARY AGENT TO REPRESENT MY BOOK
OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOOOOOD
FREAKING OUT? ME? WHY WOULD YOU EVER SAY THAT AHAHAHAHAA OH MY GOD
So this has been my life for the past few weeks:
Late January: take short writing break from novel to edit the hell out of previous chapters.
Last Saturday: finish second to last chapter.
Last Sunday through Wednesday: chip away at last chapter before pulling insane all-nighter to finish the entire thing in one fell swoop.
Last Wednesday through Friday: try to put story away to get some distance from it, but constantly think about what edits I'm going to make anyway.
Yesterday: snap and complete first round of edits by working on the thing for five hours straight, then send off to the best editor I know.
Today: get up and think, "Well, nothing I can do but wait for her to get back to me, I should take a break," then proceed to revise my query letter ten million times instead.
Obsessive? Me? Nahhh.
Half the time I have a really good feeling about this, and the other half of the time I'm positive that I'm going to fail miserably. I suppose that's how it goes.
