Sent my first query letter this morning with more to come. Looking forward to joining you all soon with this badge of honour.
I was expecting it to come, just not that quickly. Sent on Sunday and rejected by Monday although with "A lot to admire," apparently. Still a lot of queries out in the wild though
I currently have 19 submissions active on Submittable, 12 of which are "in progress". My dilemma is that I have one story in progress with six publications, another story to four. The thought occured to me a little while ago, what if they all respond at the same time. I mean, how do I decide which rejection to accept?
This is not likely to happen. You always go with the first to accept and withdraw the other submissions immediately.
whenever i feel like a submission went well (i.e. i've crossed my T's and dotted my i's and everything has been checked fr SPAG)...... the submission receipt reflects a different story: missing a word IN THE FIRST SENTENCES of the query letter..... forgot an 'e' in "there"..... and the WORST THING EVER: i didnt hit "open" when attaching the file with my sample chapters to the form, which DID NOT ATTACH MY FILE. I'd literally been working on that one query form for 4 hours, making sure everything was there and in order..... how did i miss the most important part?? and the others... how did i miss those little stupid mistakes?? i know those submission will get rejected... especially the one missing the attachment
I know how you feel. I always, always catch mistakes in a manuscript, even after I thought it was immaculate. But then again, editors and typesetters are also human. (I had the joy of seeing a brand new typo appear in my story when it was published in the Pushcart anthology). And of course, there are best-selling novels published with small errors, even in the umpteenth printing. Hopefully, the person on the other end of your query realizes that imperfections find their way into the process despite our best intentions. If they have a good attitude about it, that is a plus for them.
A Revise & Resubmit came in this morning. Very minor revisions, but they have the potential to be highly subjective, so I’m a little anxious about this one.
A short rejection received this morning. Current count: 2 x Rejections. 1 x Requesting more info about the solution. 1 x Request for first fifty pages.
I'm reading a novel by Stephen King in which the main character is reminded of the Catch-22 situation with agents and rejections. "You need an agent to get published but you need to be published to get an agent." Not always true, of course, but it does seem like that.
This one was fun. I was following the anthology publisher on Facebook, they posted that they had 115 submissions. Then that they had got that down to 70 something in the first round review. I had no rejection email so assumed I’d got through that. At the second round review they got down to 30. Again, no email. At the third round they rejected another 9 and accepted 21. I received an email saying my story had been chosen . It’s a mental health sci-fi/fantasy anthology and most of the proceeds go to a suicide prevention charity. As someone who has been plagued by suicidal thoughts in the past, I’m pleased to be a part of this anthology. The only bad thing is that we get a $20 payment and we are able to donate it to the charity if we prefer. I’ve spent years trying to make money from my hard work spent writing and gone part time at work to focus on writing more so I want the money but I feel guilty the way they say in the email ‘some authors have said they want to give the money to the charity’. It kind of feels like they’re trying to make me feel guilty although I’m sure that’s not their intention!
Take the money. I assume to submit, you had to pay an entry fee? In that case, you're basically making back your fee and have no profit at all from this as it is. You've worked hard for this and deserve the money. Take it and treat yourself to something with it. You're free to donate to the charity the same amount or even more later if you wish - it needn't come from the measley $20 from your winning entry! It's hardly enough monetary compensation as it is!
So, no luck with publishing my novel and no inspiration so far for a new WIP, though I'm not short of ideas. However, I did accidentally land a ghostwriting job with a large US platform, and I'm also currently in the second stage of interviews/assessments for a second ghostwriting job to write romance novellas lol. Now if only I'd have this much luck with my own novels Anyway, I guess I don't mind the validation that my writing is clearly all right, and as a stay-at-home mum right now, I certainly don't mind the little side income this brings! Let's see if I get the second job too as that would be a very nice bit of side money esp now with no job and rising prices. We're not struggling - my husband earns well - but you can never have too much money eh, esp now with 2 kids! I'm also slowly but surely beginning to think of myself as a professional writer. Despite not having had any of my novels published, to have been paid for my writing regardless does feel good
No entry fee! But I always like to have a copy of the books I’m published in, this one gives an electronic copy but I like to have them all in print. So most of the money I earn goes on buying the books!
Already received a couple of rejections from the submission spree. 8-day rejection from CamCat Books. 2-day rejection from an agency. Wow, don't think they got past the first couple paragraphs of the query letter. More to come, I'm sure !
Got another one already. 5-day rejection from a smaller agency. They were nice enough to write a personalized rejection stating that based on the synopsis, the work wasn't right for them. Much better than those who simply do not respond at all !
Which novel? I haven't read a King novel in a few years. One with a writer as a character sounds like a fun read. I generally like his takes on the publishing industry.
