Saturday, February 9, 2013

Journey to Publication! Part 3: Despair

Okay so I'm not exactly despairing, but I'm not full of hope and optimism like I was only a week or so ago. Things have settled down a bit, and after sending out a new batch of queries over a week ago, I've received two very brief form rejections and nothing else. I've gone through the list of agents I really wanted to query initially, and am now unsure where to go or what to do next. And above all I just feel... emo about it all.

When do I not feel emo though? Sigh. I guess I'm just annoyed because I went from 3 agents requesting material in a short period of time to a series of bland rejections. Obviously this is super normal, and I've only queried about 12 agents so far. But I'm in a stupid headspace where I'm convinced (again; welcome to emotional rollercoaster!) that my book is horrible and even if I was a literary agent I'd never represent it because it could never sell.

In moments of clarity and non-emo-ness, I don't think this at all. I think my book is a bit odd, perhaps, in terms of genre, but it could easily be shoe-horned into Steampunk or Fantasy or even Magical Realism if need be. And I believe it can sell, and sell well. But only when I'm in a good mood. I'm in a horrible mood now, have been for a while, and I feel like a hack.

The only thing I can do is continue to query agents and hope I'll eventually find the one who loves my book. I have a feeling it's gonna take a lot of queries and a lot of patience, but that's okay. I just have to do it. I have to pretend to be confident and excited when I feel full of irrational despair. I have to keep at it.

Statistically, if I query enough agents, someone is bound to love my novel... right? That's how the world works, right? Right?

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