I've been lurking quite a while and reading archived topics on getting published - so much useful stuff on here, thanks to all of you. I especially empathise with anyone in the same situation as I am - hoping, as a total novice, to get some of my work published this year (or next! or 2010! oh ok, posthumously?)

I'm finding the waiting very hard. I sent two stories out to People's Friend 6 weeks ago and haven't heard a thing. I know this is to be expected... but my! it's tough to wait. I'm still looking out for the postman with bated breath every morning ... I enclosed only small SAEs for their reply and asked them not to return the MS if they couldn't use it (the stories were so short and easy for me to reprint) but I wonder where if that's where I went wrong.

Much more dear to my heart than those, though, is a humorous diary I began writing last year about my experiences in the equestrian world. I sent out a synopsis and some samples to a publisher in the genre in January - and amazingly enough had a reply 5 days later to say my extracts had made her laugh, and she was eager to see more. Now this next part might be familiar to some of you... for three days and nights I then toiled, sweating and rewriting and editing and polishing with all my might. Even the formatting took me hours! MS Word fought me every step of the way For I had expected it to be months before I got any reply at all and wasn't prepared for this.

Finally, I emailed off a huge chunk, polished to the hilt - waited for a reply - nothing. After waiting 4 weeks (as instructed by my Bible, the Insider's Guide to Getting your Book Published) I emailed to ask if she had received it - very polite, very non-pushy. The editor (who seems lovely - very friendly) emailed back to say she had. she had 'thoroughly enjoyed it' and was 'sharing it with others' and would get back to me in a day or two. That was over two weeks ago...

I feel sure this is a Bad Sign. These 'Others' didn't like it, right? They obviously didn't like it enough to say 'sign up this woman now!' anyway

Sorry this is so long for a first post. I only wish that saleable words would trip so lightly off my pen

Yes, it's agony, and there's no cure. But very, very well done for getting this far! As you've discovered, one thing that helps is to try and have quite a few things out there at once - then you don't have all your emotional capital resting on one piece.

Very good luck with both, and don't forget that lots of things rejected in one place get accepted in another. It really is a very personal decision, and can also rest on things like what else they've just accepted, so that when an editor says 'I'm sure you'll place it elsewhere, they really do mean it.

Emma

Thanks Emma! It was lovely to get a reply, I was so nervous about posting.

One problem is that if this publisher decides it isn't for her, I'm not sure where to turn. I carefully chose her as the most suitable for what is quite a narrow genre but I'm very green so a lot of this is guesswork. I suppose if the worst happens I might try an agent who would know far better than I who might take on such a work.

Strikes me that the oft-read advice to 'write what publishers can sell, not what you want to write' is entirely logical and fair - but not very easy for us writers either to hear or to obey. I feel that Tolkein, for example, had a great, epic story bubbling inside him he just had to tell, regardless of whether it was saleable, and lucky for him, it was! My tale has to be told, likewise... but whether it also has to be read, ah... that's another story

Merry, you’ve done VERY well to get this far. In my experience, the fact that the editor is sharing it with others is a good sign. I've heard that the longer you have to wait, the further along the process your ms is going. However, I've also heard from writers who waited months before getting a no. You have to live in hope but expect the worst.

As for writing what gets published; well… I know some writers can do that, but it’s not for me. I think if you're passionate about your work, it comes through in the writing. That doesn’t automatically make it ‘good writing’, but it’s part of the process.

Welcome to WW.

Dee

I'd agree with Dee. Apart from anything else, you write what you wasnt to write so much better than what someone else wants you to write. In the end, really good writing transcends genre.

And I meant to say in my last, welcome to WW. Don't be nervous about posting - everyone's friendly and supportive, because we've all been in the same boat.

Emma

Merry,

Believe me, the phrase 'a day or two' doesn't usually mean a day or two, or three, or even four - it could easily mean a fortnight (a month!), and though it feels brutal to you it's probably not even occurring to the editor because meanwhile she's doing a dozen other things while you are focussing on that one manuscript. Did I say focussing? I meant obsessing - it's what we all do.

I'm going through a similar wait at the moment. GOOD LUCK.

Myrtle

oh, good luck to you too, Myrtle! it's so nice to be among others who know exactly what it's like. And thanks to everyone for such nice replies, so helpful and encouraging.

'Obsessing' is about right. I laugh at myself sometimes how much I think about it. Of course I play this down to family and friends... another reason it's so good to be here with people who also check their email/post in daily hope and fear.

And very good point about my MS being only one of many to the editor, even though it is all the world to me. I must keep sight of that.

And I must make sure the whole dang thing is ready, just in case she does want to take it further. Paradoxically, since getting her positive responses, I have been completely unable to write a thing, frozen with fear in case the rest isn't as "good". Isn't that strange!

I have been completely unable to write a thing, frozen with fear in case the rest isn't as "good". Isn't that strange!

No, it's absolutely natural - even to be expected. Anything that makes you suddenly see your writing from the outside - self-consciously - changes how you feel about it, just as having guests makes you see your house as they will, and get tidying after happily ignoring the chaos for months. Even success can make you feel like that - when a story's been well received, the next one's infinitely harder to start, for fear of it not measuring up.

Emma

Merry,

I am sure that Members know exactly how you feel for most of them have suffered, hoped, been disappointed, brushed themselves down and then turned their attention to the next writing task.

There is no easy way to overcome disappointment and rejection slips but it's all part of the writing game.

You have had a POSITIVE reaction, even if this is a thumbs-down when you do hear again, you have made a mark! Well done.

Myrtle says it all... and from Dee and Emma you have similar replies of understanding. So, take heart, you are certainly not alone.

Len

Emma - I can really believe that the agony never stops! Us not-yet published writers don't look tend to look beyond that first giant hurdle of getting published and imagine that established writers don't go through the same doubts - but I can see they must. I bet every time a new Potter comes out JKR suffers agonies waiting for the reviews. However successful it's made you, I bet a bad review is as hurtful as the days of rejection slips.

Thanks Len - yes I've certainly taken much heart from the people on here - I have been reading all the archived topics in this forum and been amazed by how similarly we all feel, same doubts and hopes and dashed hopes.

I told the editor currently considering my work that if she 'wanted to take things further' (how I agonised over that phrase in case I sounded too optimistic/presumptuous!) then I would need 'some time' to rewrite the beginning section as it didn't fit the style of the rest - she was fine with that and said she would just look at what I'd done (which is about 3/4 of the work) - so I really must buckle down this week to getting that rewrite done. (been trying but the Muse deserted me.) I don't want to be caught on the hop if she does say 'I want it - where's the rest then' and if she says no, then I will gulp down my misery and soldier on to start the whole thing again with a diff publisher/agent, but I feel I have been very lucky this time to get such a quick response in the first instance, and must be prepared for an even longer wait next time!