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Friday, April 23, 2010

This Week's Rejection Tally

This week I hit a milestone of sorts in my writing career (today, actually): got my 100th rejection. FS&G gets the prize, a nice juicy raspberry... plus my next sub next week. Otherwise, it was a pretty slow week.

Anyway, here are this week's stats, folks:




Total manuscripts out: 51
Unique PBs: 23
> New this week: 2
Unique MG/YA: 2
> New this week: 0

Total rejections:
Form: 2
Personal: 1*
> Positive: 1
> Negative: 0
For a date: 0
*anything that directly references my submission

Total requests: 1
Partials: 0
Fulls: 0
Phone numbers: 1 (admittedly, from a new colleague, not an agent or editor)

Mood Meter (on a scale of -5 to +5 with -5 being downright rotten and +5 being ecstatic): 3.1
(the 0.1 is because I sent out my first sub on a funny PB MS about...


drum roll


... Snot.

And I'm still giggling.




I think I need to get out more.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, that PB about "snot" sounds like it could be hilarious. I'm crossing my fingers for you! Good Luck!

    P.S. I love your 'about me' section. :)

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  2. Ken, I got my first rejection! It was an exciting form e-mail from Barefoot Books. I'm glad that you are keeping on, your work is great. :) Jess

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  3. Hopefully things will go better for you soon. You've only gotten 4 rejections with 51 manuscripts out? If those are recent submissions that's really not a terrible number. You still have a lot of work out there (which means they are reviewing it still, yay). I don't think I'll be sending out any of my illustrations until the beginning of next year (I want to make sure my portfolio and several illustrations are done before I get out there in rejectionville). Good luck with your writing, and hopefully several of your manuscripts will be accepted for publishing soon.

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  4. Thanks, Blee. Funny how some memories from our childhood can still be so vivid. I hope that's not a sign of Alzheimers. BTW, I was on such a roll that I wrote a sequel. The 1st one's called PRINCE HIGBERT'S NEW HANKY and the 2nd is PRINCE HIGBERT SNIFFLE'S NO MORE. Even if they never get pubbed, I had such fun writing them.

    Jess: Yea! I mean, I'm so sorry - I mean Yea! First rejections are tough, but it means you're putting yourself out there, which is a huge hurdle, so congrats! Getting past this and resubmitting is the next. I know you can do it. Your stories are so heartfelt and true that I just know someone will buy them.

    And welcome, Dani. I started writing about seven years ago, but really only started aggressively subbing out about six months ago. Like you, I wanted a solid portfolio before making this next move. I try to send out as many MS's as I receive replies back on, so my outstanding subs usually number ~50 (which on roughly 25 manuscripts means that each story is out at any given time to an average of two houses/agents). I'm jealous: Vancouver. Always wanted to visit. Coincidentally, on Saturday, I got a request for a full on my YA novel set in Puget Sound (no vampires or werewolves), on a fictional island in the San Juan Islands. PS, can you draw me a nice plump piggy bank filled to the top with hundreds? :)

    Good thoughts to all as we send our work out into the world.

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