This seems to be the best move for you. You can think of it terms of time management too. If you have received interest in your novel, it probably would be a waste of time to make major changes before you hear back. There is a chance an agent is going to accept the draft you submitted and perhaps make different recommendations. From my own experience and from what I've heard from other writers, the editor/agent will often prefer to use the draft they accepted as a starting point for editing anyway.
13. This one was weird. Wanted the full manuscript instead of sample chapters. Responded a few hours later with a "no"
Not to be ungrateful or anything, but how about you come over and flutter your fingers over my computer to do my submissions for me? I have cookies...
Not getting many rejections from my last batch. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I was surprised to receive another rejection from a submission I'd made in the fall. 82-day agent rejection. Just a form letter. That makes it 8 for the year so far.
Hey ladies -- I've got no place else to be. Can I come to the party and learn a few tricks? I find making submissions hard. I've trained myself to follow a schedule of making at least one new submission each week, but I'll admit to not always sicking to it. I think aiming for 100 submissions in a year will really make me send stuff out and hopefully make a bit of money. Although, I will say I'm not sure either of those things will happen. I just really need a cookie.
Always genre stuff. Currently trying to sell a commercial apoc/post-apoc science thriller with an itty bit of undead/zombie-ishness.
@J.T. Woody and @Set2Stun -- You guys are off to a good start for the year. It would seem you guys will probably be in for some good news soon. Fingers crossed for you both. After all, the idea behind aiming for 100 is what happens along the way when you shift your goal and focus. I thought it was worth a try. Are you guys sending out short stories too? Or are you focusing on landing an agent?
I love that shit! I write that kind of stuff too sometimes. The last short story I had published was one of these type of stories.
Main focus has been on agents for this book, but I have made 7 submissions to magazines as well this year. But I will probably not do that again until I've completed a rewrite on one of the stories after receiving some good feedback. While waiting for nibbles, I'm going to try querying agents again for a science fiction novel. And then I'll go back to the other one and the stories. That should get me a real nice pile of rejections, and then I can begin working on my next project for a bit. You said you only make one new submission per week. You mean, new story? I got the impression that you submit a lot.
I think I do submit a fair amount. Sometimes I will send out a lot in a short time span. Like in the fall when most of the literary journals are open to submissions. I find it's a little more work this time of year. I've made the same amount of submissions as you this year, but you're doing the agent thing and have multiple works you're dealing with. Impressive. I'm just writing and sending out stories that nobody seems to want.
Yeah, a bit odd, although I sometimes worry that my hook in the query hasn't been good enough to entice the agent to ask for more than the first five pages and will never see all the fabulous stuff in the rest of my story.
When I first saw this thread I thought, What a downer. Rejections. And the thread title is repeated three times. Yeah, a triple downer. But since then, I've begun to see it as an upper--a triple upper. And not just because misery likes company. But because the attitude conveyed by pretty much everyone in the thread is positive rather than negative toward the process of writing, editing and seeking a wider audience for your stories. Cheers to all of you...
I've made 10 submissions so far this year. I feel like I pushing myself to really put myself out there. I've got a few more pieces to clean up before submitting them, but I'm really making my best effort that I am currently capable of. Life is so hard right now, and I am just throwing myself into checking out the journals and making submissions. A lot of publications are super unpredictable when it comes to response times. So, I want to make as many submissions as I can early in the year to reach 100 rejections by the end of the year. This little experiment has led me to discovering some journals I wasn't aware of. I think I know the scene fairly well, but there are a few places I'm new to submitting and I did send a story into a few anthology calls, which isn't something I've really done before. It's like, hmmm... who can I get to reject me next... JK. They all want to buy my stuff and pay me obscene amounts of money... JK. I think it's more like the first thing I said.
131 day form rejection from The Moth for its last edition. That's my number 3 so far this year. I've not got many submissions pending, though my baby is currently "in progress" with two publications, occupying most of the emotional energy I have available for this whole process. When/if rejected, that'll hurt a bit. Must send out more. Already falling behind on this 100 challenge!
