one more today

Another rejection today sent via my agent. Four left from first round, plus the six new ones equals 10.

More rejections

Ok, agent is out there doing her job. She e-mailed with a list of rejections and comments from four publishers, so we are dead in the water at six of the 11, but still alive at five. She also said we are officially submitted at six other smaller houses. So, I am still alive at 11 houses. Meanwhile I am plodding forward with plans for an artist friend to paint my cover. Thanks for reading. It was three weeks ago that my agent officially sent out.

ALL QUIET

E-mailed agent for update. She e-mails back that PublisherA probably wants to look at novel pages and since there are none and they haven't made any noise since last week, that's probably a bad sign, but nothing definitive. She said she would try to hit up some smaller publishers more known to take on story collections to create a little spark, but that since we haven't heard from nine other major houses yet (been only two weeks and a day) that it is too soon to panic, and she will buzz these editors for a second time (after sending them the manuscript two weeks ago). So the count remains out of 11 submissions, one rejection (nice) so far and one curious as to if I have a novel, and nine no responses whatsoever. I'll keep you updated.

Anticipation

Well, I landed an agent who sent my story collection out the first week in March. A few days later my agent called and left a voicemail. She said she'd only call unless she had hard news, not just so-and-so may be interested. So imagine my anticipation when I called her back, hands shaking. She said PublisherA had called her and complimented her on the writing, saying they liked it, but they wanted to know if I had a novel or was working on a novel or had a synopsis. I had just finished the collection weeks earlier so hadn't begun anything new but had been kicking around a novel idea. My agent and I talked it over on the phone and she said to write a synopsis that night, and get it to her the next morning, which I did. Then they apparently called her back and asked if I had sample pages, which I don't. All this was exactly a week ago on March 18, 2009. Meanwhile, she reads me the first rejection over the phone from PublisherB, which was a so-called nice rejection. So out of the first net my agent cast two weeks ago, of the 11, only one has outright rejected, one has expressed interest, and no word from nine others. I've started this blog to get a few things off my mind and show other writers who are fishing around for an agent how this all works. Since this is a new blog, other details are in order. It's adult literary fiction. A short-story collection, many of which have been previously published and won an O. Henry prize and a Pushcart special mention. Agent is from reputable agency, "highly recommended" agency as listed in Preditor, and has made about 40 debut fiction and general fiction sales dating to 2001. I don't want to hound her, since it's only been two weeks, but was thinking a weekly e-mail wouldn't be too much hounding, unless, of course, I get THE CALL from her.