Rejection Letter from An Agent: If I could answer it now



from inkygirl, click cartoon for link & below

 Rejection: I would lay bet every writer has received at least one. So, there is the "I'm going to keep trying," and there's the "I suck so I'm giving up" and there is something in between. Who are you? Having had to SEND rejections through the Rose & Thorn Journal, I know just how close some writers came to that acceptance - and how sometimes we never hear from that writer again, and we wish we would. Then there are writers who just do not fit our journal, and no matter how many times they submit, it may never ever work out between us.

This is a rejection letter I received in 2008 for what would become Tender Graces, a book that I'm receiving great reviews on, just as I am with Sweetie  - my responses are in blue -of course I didn't send my responses back, because that just isn't done - but if I could have . . .
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Dear Kathryn,

Thank you for sending your material so promptly - I was really looking forward to taking a look at it (you were! Why . . . dang . . . that's nice to hear). Unfortunately, your project doesn't seem right for me. Since it's crucial that you find an agent who will represent you to the best of his or her ability, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to step aside rather than ask to represent your manuscript (Aw, hon, that's okay - I found a really great group of women publishers and I'm happy! But thanks for taking time to read some of it.).


You have a great imagination - I love the premise and you're a good writer (thank you! That's kind of you - in fact, this encourages the hellvetica out of me to keep trying), but I'm sad to say that I just wasn't passionate enough about this to ask to see more (then we are in agreement - if you aren't passionate about my work, then you aren't right for me, either!). I was intrigued by the theme of spirituality and voices of the dead that the protagonist revisits through objects from her childhood life, but I thought the story lacked direction. I think it's the kind of thing that really is subjective - why some people adore the book on the top of the NYTimes bestseller list, and others don't (I changed something in the first chapter, just because of your feedback about "direction," and perhaps that's what garnered me a contract only a few months after I received your email. Thank you for the feedback - because it turned the corner for my novel).

Just to reiterate, all of these decisions are subjective; another agent and publisher will probably feel differently (Yes, they did, and yes I understand the subjective nature - you really don't even have to feel apologetic, because this is how the business works. Again, to reiterate my point as well, I wouldn't want an agent or publisher who wasn't excited about my work!). I certainly encourage you to continue to seek representation elsewhere (I wish I could offer you some suggested names, but this really is such a subjective business that I'm not sure who it would be right for) (no need for you to suggest, but thanks for being so nice and for the kind offers of help-you could have sent a form letter and you didn't, for that I'm appreciative), and thank you again for the opportunity to take this on (well, thank you for the time you took with me - I'm sure you are a good agent, but things worked out for me after all  - All the best to you, Kathryn Magendie).
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Folks, in most instances, we should never give up. In many instances, we should look at something the agent/publisher has said about our book in their comments and use that to make the book better IF what they are saying makes sense when we look at it objectively and not with emotion- it's your work, after all. In some instances, we may find we want to take another direction for our novel and try something and someone else. In my instance, I by-passed an agent and went straight to a publisher just because I loved their motto: "Southern Fried Fiction," and the rest is "my history." Maybe a rejection will be a springboard to something else: a tighter manuscript, or a different agent, or a small royalty paying press like Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books, or whatever works for you.

I couldn't "kill the messenger" - I could have been upset at this agent, but look at the time she took with my letter. And the hint she gave me about "direction" that allowed me to see something in the first part of my book I needed to change. And here I am, three published books later - Tender Graces is a well-loved novel and I'm proud of it.

Have a good weekend, y'all!

Cartoon from : Inkygirl: Daily Diversions for Writers

Random, and not so random, Links, Videos, and Photos . . . Rose & Thorn & Handsome Men in Showers & et cetera

Today's links/videos/photos will be done lickity spit, because Angie Gumbo Writer, I, and our wonderful staff are working hard this week to ready the winter issue of The Rose & Thorn Journal and our newsletter. We hope you will stop by and say so long to the writers and poets from our fall issue. Send a note if you enjoy a story or poem or the art- or let us know what you think about R&T.

Our newsletter will go out to email inboxes on January 15, the day the issue goes live. If you haven't signed up, we hope you will--it's free and your emails are protected.


Also, our R&T Blog is chock full of gooey-good-stuff - about writing and writers and books and literature and people and places. Today R&T staffer Dr. Adnan Mahmutovic's (author of Thinner and [Refuge]e and more) review and interview of Jo Cannon’s Insignificant Gestures will be up at the R&T blog. We'll be posting Adnan's interviews and/or reviews about once a month. We'd love to have you subscribe to the blog while you are there! And I had to put that Dr. there in front of my friend's name - he worked so hard for that Ph.D. Go Adnan!

Because I love my publishers, Bellebooks//Bell Bridge Books and want to impress them with how hard I work and for them to think I am loved by multitudes, *laughing* I'll post this link again if y'all want to go check it out on BB's new blog and my first post with them . . . Bullies, Outcasts, Prejudice and SWEETIE

Though I am doing well on Kindle, I'd love to see more of my books in bookstores and in libraries, so I encourage you to ask for them in your local bookstores and libraries if you are so moved- my dream would be to have my books in every library - oh! I love libraries and librarians. Epecially when he talks about them:

Diane still has the week-long give-aways, and a signed copy of Tender Graces is still up for grabs last I looked.





[I still can't remember how to make the links open to a new page, so sorry. I am quite surprised blogspot doesn't have this feature included. I know somewhere we are to put a target="_blank" but danged if I can figure out where/how.]

Danged if this video doesn't make me laugh every time.  The look on Mrs. Lincoln's face as ole Abe takes his time . . . laughing!




That's it for now, folks. See you all Friday! Now I'm going to finish my coffee before a snowy walk in the cove.

target="_blank" . . . where oh where does this go? dang.

PS! I almost forgot - Small Footprints's Art Tist (click pic) painted this from one of my photos! Oh, I do love this:

From the Archives: Cleaning Up Our Manuscripts . . .

As I said last Monday, for the next few Mondays I will link back to the series of posts I wrote on "Cleaning up our Manuscripts" - and when we've all caught up,  I'll begin to write new thoughts. I'm not big on giving advice, and geez but there's PEE-LENTY of danged ole advice out there as it is, but . . . *Kat trails off* . . . *laughing*

Before I begin: Bellebooks/Bell Bridge books has a new blog and my post is up - Bullies, Outcasts, Prejudice and SWEETIE.


Also, hop on over to Diane Estrella's place where she has a week's worth of give aways and TG is on for today. (I just went by there - she has a big ole bunch of Me up there *blushing teeheehee* and is giving away a copy of Tender Graces - it'll be signed, too.)



Archive Links for Cleaning Up Our Manuscripts:

A few words on Punctuation . . .

Stuffing information down readers' throats


Lookin' in the mirror

Okay, that's enough for today. I'll have more Cleaning up our Manuscripts links next Monday to add to the Roar of Information Over-load out there on writer's advice; dang, I feel like a cliche all of a sudden . . . *laugh*. And, then, Wednesday is "links/videos/photos," and Friday is Open.

Minding the Front of the Building . . .

Whenever we are  in Waynesville driving down Soco Road, we notice this fairly new ice cream parlor. Actually, it's also a "We Buy Gold!" joint, too. We saw it as they painted it and put up signs. As the weeks passed, they began to add more and more menu items and services: unlimited talk, wi-fi, hot chocolate, hot dogs, delivery, et cetera.

We can't drive now without looking to see what they've added or changed. I told GMR, "Look how hard they are working. Look at all they are doing to pull people into their shop."

I wonder, are they having success despite all their efforts? There doesn't seem to be many cars there when we pass - of course, this is the time of year when the tourists have gone home and many of the "part timers" have left. Still, I wonder. These people are trying HARD. They are doing all they can with marketing and promotion and "let's try this and this and this." They are not giving up.

Have GMR and I gone inside yet? I admit: no. What's keeping us from going inside? I've thought about this. First, the color of the place is off-putting. And all the signage over-whelms--some of the signs droop. The "We Buy Gold" doesn't inspire me to go inside. I don't know - something about it causes me to hesitate to go in and check them out, even though I admire them for their tenacity and spirit.

We may try this and try that and try the other, and still something isn't quite right. People aren't coming in. The parking lot isn't full. What may seem wonderful to one is not so wonderful to another. What may be welcoming to a person here doesn't feel welcoming to a person there.

I sometimes want to go in and say, "Step back from what you are doing and really look at the image your place is reflecting . . ." and maybe they could see what I see. But another part of me imagines them inside, happy and excited; getting together and discussing: "what next!" with a fever of happiness that they have their very own business and look at how beautiful it is -- that image makes me smile. That image makes me want to go in - every time I see a new angle, I want to go in. But still I have not. I want them to be successful. I want to see the parking lot full, but if I don't go in myself to support them, then . . . well, you see my point.

Sometimes, despite your best effort, despite all you put into your work, still the parking lot doesn't seem as full as you'd like. So you change something, and something else, and add something and fiddle and change. When all along, there is that glaring one thing you haven't noticed: the front of your building.

I think there's a lesson or a moral or a metaphor in this, even though I'd only thought to come talk about this little ice cream shop.

What do you think?
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 Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Books has a new blog - stop by and read, and better yet-subscribe!

Random Links . . . Random Videos . . . Random Photos

Storm clouds, taken from my porch

It's Wednesday and time for links and videos. First, thanks for the well-wishes for GMR's and my 14th annivesary - had a wonderful day. Today's the two-year anniversary of this blog - I thought to celebrate it, but then I didn't plan a thang - huhn. Oh well.

Links (and I still haven't figured out how to make the links open to a new page where you don't have to backtrack to here - someone showed me how & I can't find the email . . . dang my hide!)

Over at the Rose & Thorn Blog, our own Angie Gumbo Writer has a post: Avoiding Some Common Writing Mistakes by Angie Ledbetter

Jane Friedman has a wonderful series on her "Change is Here; How will you Grow" blog called: When Mom Was  My Age. There have been 16 of these, scroll and check them out.

I've linked this before, but I always enjoy stopping by The Read on WNC and seeing what's up with Appalachian/WNC writers, and et cetera!


I also love visiting Blind Pig & The Acorn - always something interesting for me to read about Appalachia.

This morning, I took a few rounds at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, Writer's News Weekly (I read my writer's horoscope there :-D), and The Huffington Post Books pages.

The photos above were taken from my porch here in the cove at Killian Knob - I put these two plus a couple more on my Facebook page and people really seem to respond to these images, so I thought I'd put two of them here.
As for videos, I leave you with a short You Tube vid of Soco Falls in Cherokee Reservation here in WNC, where GMR and I went yesterday. . . it's only about 10-15 minutes from our house.





Now y'all all go Do The Day! See you Friday, which is Open to whatever I'm in the mood for.

I'm Back! . . . Post Archives: Cleaning up our Manuscripts

It is Write The Dang Book, Kathryn time. I must finish VK III, the third (final) Graces book, and that means it is time for me to GET ME ARSE TO SOME SERIOUS WORK TO MEET MY DEADLINE . . . and it is also time to hop back on my regular blog posting of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My long vacation is O V E R! I feel refreshed, renewed, and ready to get back to work.



For the first few Mondays, to kick things off, I'm linking to archives on my series "cleaning up our manuscripts." This will be a good start to Monday's posts, which will be writing/grammar/publication/et cetera related. 
 

Wednesdays will be links and/or videos, which will concern general subjects (including other bloggers, writers, poets, artists, or whatever general doodlee dah I come across that I want to share).

Fridays are open.

I will say that January 4th is GMR's and my 14th anniversary, and January 5 will be two years since I began this blog. *big smile*

Now - a few archive links -

My Simile Post is Like a Red Red Rose . . . or maybe not

Picturing the scene: eyes falling out of their sockets; arms & legs followed! oh dear!

Those Adverbly Adverbs, la ly ly ly la la la ly la!

Point of View - I see you. I am the STORY TELLER. He/She is the STORYTELLER



That's enough for now - I'll be back on Wednesday. Have a great day!

(And the wonderful person who showed me how to have the links open to a new page, oh, if you could remind me and this time I won't forget . . . *lawd*)

(The SWEETIE Amazon Kindle free downlaod promo is now over! It is now back to the paid lists. Hope you were able to take advantage of it!)

image

Happy New Year - my last days of my "vacation" draw near!

Happy New Year Y'all - I will see you all Monday the 3rd, back to work for Kat and many others. I'll be back to regular posting on Monday.

(I think today is the last day for Bellebooks/Bell Bridge Book's Christmas Gift Kindle Give Away of SWEETIE, so . . . !)

Love and Hope and All Good Things from My Little Log House at Killian Knob to You and Yours!