Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Nice People Make the World Go Round

In the past couple months, I've made some significant changes to THE UNICORN TAMER that I'm really pleased about. I've also honed a new pitch and it's done pretty well on querytracker.net - Ms. Stampfel-Volpe requested a full from it and Mr. Deenan thought the pitch was semi-finalist worthy. So what does one do with a polished-er manuscript and an improved pitch? One queries.

With all the form rejections and the no-answer means no, it's easy to feel insecure about your work. For the majority of this process, it's probably going to be just doom and gloom. Writers have to have thick skin and they have to be completely mad (and madly in love with their story) to weather the seemingly (and quite possibly) never-ending gray clouds. However, even the maddest, thickest skin of the bunch needs a little ray of sunshine every now and again. Yesterday, my ray of sunshine came in the form of a rejection letter from Agent Laurie McLean.

I think she started with a form letter, but then personalized it. She made me feel like she was talking to me. She was kind and helpful, completely honest (about the market and how busy she was) and realistic. She was so sweet, I just had to write her a thank you - a "your rejection letter was so nice" thank you. Ms. McLean then wrote back, encouraging me to query THE UNICORN TAMER to a lot of agents. No promises, just hope.

And that's just what we mad, thick-skinned writing monsters feed on: hope.

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