Rejection the Second
Met my agent today at Book Expo America. He let me use his assistant’s badge to get in, and we walked around so he could introduce me to people and score me some freebies. It was a Sunday, so the best freebies were long gone, and a lot of the top editors were nowhere to be found, but I still met some good people, got to do a little gladhanding, and learned a LOT about the industry and the politics of publishers who have my manuscript on their desks.
My agent knows everyone. One of the editors at Tor books, arguably the top of the SF publishing heap, actually gushed “We love your authors!” to him. That was gratifying to hear. He has faith in me, and publishers have faith in him, so hopefully that will bear fruit.
I walked out of there with a LOT of promotional copies of books, including the new novel by RA Salvatore, who, it could be argued, did more to influence my love of fantasy than even JRR Tolkien himself. I heard RA was signing the day before. Sorry I missed that, but them’s the breaks. My back was literally breaking by the time I got home and unloaded the 30 or so books I had collected for myself, friends, and family.
Of course, when I first met my agent in the morning, he had a little gift for me. My second rejection letter for The Painted Man. Feh.
The crux of the letter was:
I really enjoyed many elements of the story, but ultimately, I was not drawn to the main protagonist.
Ah, well. Everyone has their own taste. Two down, eight to go. With 80% of returns still to come, and the two rejections from (relatively) smaller presses, my spirits are still high. Everyone I have given the book to, biased or not, has said they really enjoyed it, and when I re-read, I feel the same way. It’s a strong piece, the best I have ever produced, and I am confident someone will want to publish it.
Still, I wonder how many rejections it will take before they start to get to me? 5? 8? No telling. We’ll take it as it goes. I was kind of expecting to be hit harder by them than I have been. I don’t normally deal with rejection well.