The first Wednesday of every month, an optional question is announced that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience, or even a story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post. Remember, the question optional.
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May 6 posting of the IWSG are Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, and Kim Lajevardi!
May 6 question - What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers.
It seems like a lifetime ago...
That I went to a writer’s seminar in Pasadena...
And had a one-on-one with a prominent agent...
Who represented John Updike - The Witches of Eastwick
And—woo hoo—my story had witches.
I had sent a partial a few weeks before my meeting...
And when I met him, he told me, he liked the premise of the story…
And said to send the whole manuscript...
And I did...
And this is what he sent back
At my next writer group meeting...
I was starry-eyed and flying high...
And showed the women what the agent had sent back ...
But all the writers in the group...
Were romance writers with RWA...
And didn’t have an agent...
They were contracted directly with a publisher who did the editing .
My story, however, was not in the romance category...
It was religious horror.
(yes, I know…but these women took me under their wing)
I then queried publishers who handled horror...
But no nibbles.
**sigh**
I was too naïve and insecure to contact the agent again...
And eventually I let the ball drop on this manuscript.
**sigh**
Years later...
I self-pub’d.
I really don’t ever want to self-pub again...
I did not enjoy the process...
It was painstaking.
But now...
I’m querying to agents for Love in the Time of Wrinkles...
A humorous work of Upmarket Women’s Fiction—
That and has been read by several professional betas and they loved the story...
(and no, the betas were neither family members or friends)
It has also been fully edited by a paid editor...
But after many, many many queries...
This one too is getting declined.
**sigh**
WHY?
So?
Is this my destiny?
I’m a good writer...
But getting an agent and seeing my book in a bookstore is never going to happen?
But ya know what?
If I have to self-pub again (damn it), I will.
So?
What’s your story?
May it make me smile.
Always,
Em-Musing
2 comments:
Sorry your writer's group wasn't more helpful. Keep trying. Find some big publishers to send it to as well.
It is hard getting an agent. I've gotten a lot of good rejections along the way. And the fact that you got personal feedback from this one is huge. Another option if you don't want to self-publish is to look at smaller presses. You don't usually need an agent for those, and I've had some friends who've been published that way.
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