Monday, December 19, 2011

Stolen From Leila

But ganked with love, my friend.  Because NONE of us is a pretty, pretty unicorn, and this is entertainingly put.

I probably got more #14s than anything else when I was more actively working the grind.


#14.  "It's Just Not For Me"
You can read that kind of rejection one of two ways: one, your story was good, but just not for that market/editor/moon phase; two, the editor is uncomfortable with truth or doesn’t want to offend anybody and so is gently limping away from saying anything even remotely offensive or controversial.

It was Dream Agent's #11 that brought me back to the drawing board.  The initial "send me your full" came on the strength of QUERY LETTER ALONE - no sample, no bio, no *nothing* but the letter.  I soared.  I've gotten some really nice elevens from agents I met in person etc., but this one was a bare whisper - which yielded me a response of INCREDIBLE depth, consideration, interest, and *conversationality*.  From an agent I have researched and would easily strip my head clean of teeth to work with.

Well, maybe just the fake ones.  But that's the whole frontage of my toothscape, y'all.

So the #11 from Dreamy just about killed me - until I clarified - "I can re-query this with you, yes?" and Dreams said YES.  Oh my achin' head.  Over the moon.  And not "over it" in the bad sense, either.

The detailed-without-being-long-winded critique was spot on, of course, and has been the focus of my revisions (duh).

And just reading the 25 points at the link is firing me up all over again.  I've got GOLD in my wallet.  Gotta bank it.

1 comment:

Leila said...

I do my best to provide, levity, sorrow and other tidbits. :)