Tag Archives: 212

Rejection’s Not the End of Your World Unless You Let It Be

By Posted in 2009 Deb Interview Series, Writing: The Process Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Warning! Warning! Second post of the week in which I get all mushy!

 

Awhile back I interviewed Mandy Hubbard (debut author of Prada and Prejudice) as part of the 2009 Debutante Author Interview series. I already frequented her blog, but several commenters mentioned reading her “Road to Publication” posts. Well, if y’all don’t know, Mandy had a pretty long road to publication, so I was really curious to read how her experience was. I mean, how often does a writer really outline the rejections as she gets them? Answer: not often.

So anyway, I decided to wait until I went on submission as sort of a treat, food for the “on submission soul,” I guess. Of course, with all sorts of other things swishing around in my head, I forgot it until I’d been on submission for a couple weeks. As soon as I remembered, I opened up the Road to Publication posts in a new window. First thing I read was this:

“So, THE JETTSETTERS SOCIAL CLUB has now been out on submission for 8 days. Those dreams of an overnight sale are dashed. Ha. Just kidding. I’m way more reasonable than that. My dream was 2 days….still kidding.”

I loved this! We can say we understand that it takes time to sell a book, blah, blah, blah, but any writer that claims they do not secretly hope (and maybe even more than hope), just a little, that that their book is going to land on an editor’s desk Friday afternoon only for a 212 number to pop up on the caller ID Monday morning—well, let’s just say any writer who claims they don’t hope for that is going to have a nose longer than Heidi Klum’s left leg.

As I continued to read through Mandy’s posts, I was constantly amazed by her honesty. But with her honesty, came a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“I was burnt out…the idea of reading and writing wasn’t so exciting. I didn’t think of it every single night as I fell asleep. I didn’t conjure up a thousand different versions of what it would be like to get THE CALL.”

That statement hurt my heart. I do fall asleep every single night thinking about what it will feel like to get The Call. What I will do to celebrate? Who will I tell first?—Extremely important considerations, of course. It’s incredibly comforting to know that other writers on submission (or even not yet on submission!) feel this, too. Because, I’ve got to admit, sometimes I feel a liiiiiittle silly with so much thought devoted to the dream of publication and of sharing my book with others.

This, however, reminded me that these thoughts are actually a blessing. It’s when these dreams disappear that your dream is in danger or dying. Every second I spend hoping to realize that goal pushes me to materialize it. But sustaining that level of hope and that level of desire requires energy. It can really take it out of you! So, I can certainly see how I could get burnt out. And THAT is one of the saddest writing thoughts I’ve ever had. Fortunately Mandy pulled out of her slump and proved that secret to success is persistence.

Yes, Mandy’s story is incredibly inspiring for sure. But seriously, somebody ought to canonize her and her agent because they both truly stuck with it. And the very thought of waiting that long makes me want to jam the voteß(Please see SNL for reference)

Then again, she reminds us that “there is ONE SINGLE PERSON who could change everything.” She’s right. It only takes one editor. Or one agent. Whatever it is you are hoping for. But you can’t snag one if you don’t put anything out there.

“No one thinks, ‘okay, this is going to take a year.’”

How true is that? No one thinks that at all. I certainly don’t. But Mandy’s experience is probably MUCH more common than we realize. Sobering, but I’ve also learned from her that it’s not the end of the world unless you let it be.

Anyway, I just wanted to share and to publicly voice my appreciation for these posts. Y’all should definitely head over to her blog and read through these. I’m so thankful that she was willing to voice her feelings as she felt them during the submission process.

 

NOTE: I provided the link to her posts above. Skip to the beginning. You really can’t appreciate unless you read through the process as she goes through it.

I’m Not Even Kidding, I Have An Agent

By Posted in For Kicks, Writing: The Process Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 21 Comments

So, it’s been a week since I announced that I got The Call. Y’all might have started to suspect I was yanking your chain. But no! I was for real!

Finally! The post in which I get to announce who my agent is! Let’s play the guessing game. I’ll give the clues.

 

1. He’s a man.

2. He’s with the agency that represents Stephenie Meyers.

3. He reps Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy.

4. He does not want snail mail submissions bubble wrapped because, after all, “it’s paper, not anthrax.”

5. He’s a huge fan of graphic novels. (Convenient, right?)

6. It’s Daniel Lazar.

 

Wait, what!? 

It’s Daniel Lazar!!!!

Shoot. I told you.

 

This past week has been a whirlwind. I’m not gonna lie. It was a bit stressful at times. Every second not spent in school or studying was spent researching agents, talking to agents, asking clients about their agents…you get the picture.

Here’s the final statistical rundown of SCOUT and my journey to representation:

 

# of Queries sent: 16

# of Query Rejections: 5 (+1 who read my blog, saw I had an offer, and wrote to congratulate me)

# of Requests from Query: 7

# of Offers of Representation: 3

 

All three agents I spoke to were absolutely amazing, which made for an incredibly hard decision, but also goes to show how many really cool agents there are out there. I’ll forever be a fan of their clients’ works because of the enthusiasm and courtesy they showed me throughout this past week. It feels a lot like getting into college. I’m always a fan of the colleges I got into.

Each time 212 showed up on my phone I legit had a heart attack. NOT complaining though. It was too much fun to describe.

Anyway, this week went infinitely smoother because of the help of several writers who went beyond the call of duty in helping me make the best decision possible.

I wrote most of this over at AW, but I’ll say it again.

Thank you so much Heathur for emailing back and forth with me. It really is eerie how much we have in common. I’m glad it was you who had to make the tough decisions before me so that I could coast through the rest.

And Jen! Thanks for being super honest and telling me exactly what you thought. You are awesome and I know that I’ll be reading your Goals and Accomplishments post any minute.

Kimmi, thanks for looking up the agents’ deals for me. I feel like a mooch but it helped a ton!

And Cyn for just being awesome and for asking about how things were going.

And of course, I loved Cindy’s (Xiaotien) bootay shakin’ and Colby’s support. I’m pretty sure they were integral in getting me an agent.

It sounds corny, but since these people went well out of their way to assist a newbie they don’t even “know.” Well…yanno.

 

In the next couple weeks I’ll be doing my “homework” for Daniel, which includes coming up with the synopsis for the sequel to SCOUT! He’s all for trying to pitch it as a series. I can’t even believe it!!

Welp, when the time comes to submit, you better believe I’ll be calling for more positive vibes from y’all. Until then I’m gonna snoopy dance for a bit and then sit my butt down in the chair and get to work. I’ll resume wetting my pants when SCOUT goes out to editors.

 

Do you think I’ll miss checking my email every 30 seconds?

 

(To find out how The Call went down, click here.)