Forging Ahead

So, I got to work this morning and had another rejection letter, this time from an agent I had done a rewrite for on my partial of my first YA, Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Yet another 'great' rejection letter. She told me that she thought that I had great concepts and great writing but she didn't 'love' the book, and she had a problem with one of the characters, who admittedly is a bit of a brat. She did however ask me to submit something else I'd written so I'm submitting a partial of my other YA.

I've also gotten 2 requests and one rejection from my email queries yesterday. And I'm taking the step of sending my partials to a manuscript critique service. I've done this before and it's been helpful. Right now, I'm too close to the writing to see what needs to be fixed. And I really need to take my writing to the next level. I'm so tired of getting these 'great' rejection letters.

As a very good friend of mine said about all these agents not loving the book. "You're not asking them to marry the book!" She wondered why when all these agents seem to feel that I'm a good writer and have potential, none of them are willing to sign me and work with me. She mentioned the illustrious Janice Dickinson as an example of an agent who has two groups of models in her agency, the A models who are ready to go out on castings and hopefully book work and the B models who are still a little rough and need some work.

Unfortunately, most literary agents are being paid by Oxygen to showcase their agency on TV. They don't have the time anymore to nurture a writer, or at least I haven't found one so far who is willing despite the compliments I'm getting. They want product that only needs a little polishing, that they can send out immediately to editors.

Of course, I'm biased because I think that my series has the potential to reach a wide audience, and since my background is in acting, I can hook-up with any number of companies in New York to present my books along with their Shakespeare workshops.

So, I'm off to send off my partials and to also to send them to a publisher who is just getting into fiction and the YA market.

Thanks for reading,

EKM