I'm tired.
That was my initial thought upon receiving two more publisher rejections from my agent. I'm tired. So, so tired. Between my first agent experience, which turned out to be very shmagenty, and my current, real agent who does all the things an agent should do (and is great, truly great), my novel has been on submission for about ten-ish months. First round was about four months before I parted ways with the first "shmagent" and now the second round (as I'll call it) has been around six months so far, with each round separated by close to a year. As I've said in a previous post, waiting is so, so hard. It's the hardest part. Sometimes, my agent will reach out with news first, but other times, I'll send a question because I can't wait any longer than a month between news. I don't know if that's good or bad. It just is. Attempting to get published is an exhaustive marathon where you continually run into closing doors, when all you want to do is continue running. But you're also blind. Without any sense of where or how to go. And lobsters with razor sharp claws are chasing you, attempting to push you off a cliff. Maybe not that last part, but the prior descriptions are totally apt to the business. Between my full time job as a stay-at-home Dad for two CRAZY BOYS, regular life stuff and attempting to get published, I'm just so damn tired. Tired of being told no, tired of not knowing, tired of not understanding what I can do differently, tired of wondering if the other books I'm writing will stand a chance, tired of getting critiques, tired of self-critiquing. I'm tired. I don't write this for sympathy. Just a need to be honest. All of us--published, unpublished, agented, unagented--should probably be more honest about our journeys. So, I thought I'd share some of my rejections. Be open and honest and all that. Soon after starting on my own writing journey, I discovered a blog by Julie C. Dao, author of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, wherein she shared many (maybe all) of her publisher rejections to show how subjective the nature of this business is. She had the happy ending that I haven't yet found, but I thought I'd share a few of my rejections so far anyway. This is just a sampling, lifted directly out of the emails, and of course, no names or publishers are mentioned. Maybe it'll help some of you out there. Maybe it's just interesting. I don't know. Take a look, leave a comment, share your stories or rejections. "James does a wonderful job infusing the atmosphere of the story with a sense of mystery and wonder. However, I have to admit that I wasn’t connecting with the voice as strongly as I’d hoped. Given this, I don’t think I’m quite the right editor for this project, so I’m unfortunately going to have to pass." "I loved the writing, but after reading it, I’m afraid I’m not the best fit for books about magicians or traditional magic." "I found the concept to the story a lot of fun and definitely appealing to the middle grade audience, but I just didn’t love the voice enough to see this as a project we could break out on our list." "James Fryar’s bio is a lot of fun, and that same sense of whimsy and passion comes through in the manuscript itself. There’s a lot to admire in the novel’s pages, but ultimately I worry it might be a little too close to our own TITLE OMITTED to be a fit for our list." "James is clearly a strong writer, and the engaging voice drew me in. That said, while I enjoyed much about the read, ultimately the plot didn’t fully click into place for me, and so I suspect that I’m not the right match for the manuscript." "I really enjoyed the high-stakes adventures and getting a glimpse into the all the work that goes into performing magic! Unfortunately, I have another book on my list about a kid magician, and though this is a very different story, I don’t think I can take it on, too." So, there you go. That's where I'm at. Novel's still on submission. There's still hope, blahblahblah, but honestly it's hard to see that at times.
5 Comments
Emily
5/22/2019 12:54:48 pm
Thanks for this. I go on sub this week so was doing some research. I'd been on sub years before and remember all the "I love this but don't want to take it" rejections that I'd found bewildering, but at the time I had a very busy job and wasn't pay much attention to them. This time will be worse I'm sure! (yes did find a publisher for the last). And glad you found a new agent!
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James Fryar
5/22/2019 02:38:24 pm
Thanks for reading! Good luck on the submissions.
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5/30/2019 04:59:08 pm
Hi James, I just signed with the Knight Agency, and I found your website while looking through the author bios. My agent and I haven't started submitting yet, but I'm hoping we'll begin soon. I was sorry to read about how things aren't working out for you—yet. I've never gotten this far in the process, but I've heard that it can be hard. There really isn't anything related to writing that isn't hard, seemingly. I cope with the general frustration by exercising, but also by moving on to other projects (even if your current project has not quite concluded). I'm not sure if you've done this, but I thought I'd mention it. It's what I'm planning to do.
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Ian Schwartz
5/30/2019 06:18:43 pm
...and I read a bit more of your blog and saw that you're already quite a bit ahead of me. Sorry if the advice I attempted to give was useless.
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James Fryar
5/31/2019 09:07:31 am
Welcome to the Knight Agency! Thus far, my experience has been exemplary and my specific agent, Travis, has been nothing other than encouraging and honest. The larger industry gets frustrating at times, as I laid out in my blog. I wish you nothing but the best and hope your book sells fast! Cheers! Leave a Reply. |
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