Sugar, we're goin' down

Rejection #29 (Roman Group..see post below) was both disheartening and uplifting at the same time. This was the first agent--EVER--to make the offer of calling them up to "chat about it."

Which I'm going to do, BTW. I emailed him back pronto and wanted to know what day and time was good for him.

He's also the second agent to offer to read it again if another draft was done. Out of 30 rejections.

I think getting these rejection letters and reading the same thing over and over again--"great voice, great concept, but the pace moves too slowly"--has stunted my creativity to continue with Book Two. I feel like I mentioned her assignment too early in this one and now I don't know where to go from there.

It's kinda like the episode of Smallville the hubby and I watched last night. It showed Clark getting a serious smackdown--pun intended--by WWE's Kane. And then the beginning credits rolled. When the show came back from commercial, it began from a "46 hrs earlier" standpoint. The story worked backwards.

Should I try that with Book Two as well?

This is really hard. I mean, really, really, (TWO MORE REALLY'S IN A WHINY VOICE INSERTED HERE) hard. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I keep thinking that I'm going to quit after 100 rejections, but seriously? I don't think there are 100 agents out there that rep YA. (someone please correct me if I'm wrong here). When I get notified of recent YA sales, I write down the name of the agent and the agency. I recently bought Jeff Herman's Guide to Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents 2007 and despite the puny section of literary agents, I actually found some in there that weren't on my list.

Right now, I'm just thinking that maybe I should hold off on submitting to this new list of people until I've done a second draft.

What do you think?

Labels: Book Stuff