Yep - rejection number 4.....still a beginner! This time my manuscript didn't quite 'click'.....not quite 'total enthusiasm'. Ah well. How many do you need to class yourself as a professional? LOL!
H

Heather,
Here's a quote that should keep you going:
A professional writer is an amateur who didn't give up.
If you have the talent, it will happen. just don't give up!

Good one. It's a variation on a theme. The one I heard was:
The only difference between a writer and a successful writer is that the successful writer didn't give up.

Keep going, Heather, and don't lose heart. Believe me, four rejections is nothing!

Dee

LOL - looks like you two have been reading the same dictionary of quotations! Don't worry - give up? Never. Rewrite maybe, give up, no!!
H

Never mind Heather! Chin up and all that! I got a rejection from a publisher as well yesterday...not quite their cup of tea apparently...but it just didn't affect me at all that I didn't even mention it to anyone. Keep going Heather...you'll get there eventually.

Nahed x

Keep at it, Heather. Don't let them grind you down!!

John

Yes, four really is nothing, so keep at it. You don't necessarily have to re-write either unless all four rejections have pointed to the same reason or not accepting your work.
Sue

Well said Sue... words of common sense and wisdom. Although a literary agent on a TV programme (Watchdog) recently stated that the chances of unknown writers being published are 'nil', there always has been and always will be 'room' for new writers. However the unknown writer must be 'very good' or exceptional.

Once you are an established writer then you can afford to write work that - if submitted by an unknown - would find itself on the slush pile. Such is Life... but the lesson is
to keep honing your work, don't expect agents or editors to correct your mistakes, target your market and KEEP AT IT!

Len

Sunday Rant.

Before I joined WW I was very positive about agents.
Yes I actually thought they read the three chapters asked for, now I know different. It’s scary to think that good writing/stories do not get read.

Agents these days appear to be a barrier to publication than an aide.

OK rant over.

Dawn,

Oh Dawn… you are having a bad day, aren’t you…

I hate to say this but I have to disagree with you. Good writers struggle to get published because so many bad writers – and yes, they do exist – think they can knock out a book, send it off to a publisher then sit back and wait for the lolly to roll in.

As a result, all the publishing houses have become so inundated with slush they are using agents to filter out the readable stuff. Some have already announced they will only accept submissions through agents.

Result – the slush piles are shifting to agents’ desks. And, be fair to them… when you pick up a book in a shop I bet you don’t read the first three chapters to decide whether or not it’s worth finishing? I know I don’t. If I don’t get past the first paragraph I don’t go any further. That’s why your opening hook is so important. As I was saying on another thread (or was I dreaming? Possibly! I’m not feeling on top form this morning… can’t think why… ) I doubt if Lord of the Rings would get published today. Unless, of course, Tolkien was a celeb.

That’s what gets me ranting... Bloody celebs getting published. Greg Dyke just signed a six-figure deal. Bastard! Oooh you’ve really got me going now…

ee.

Hi Dee,

Thanks for restoring my faith... a bit.

In a previous life I worked in music and had the pleasure of sorting through demo tapes and 99% didn’t appeal to anyone, the word awful comes to mind, so I can imagine literary agents get the same thing.

But…still I want to rant about them.

Oh I agree about Greg Dyke and countless other ‘names.’ Sophie Dahl really annoys me – it’s not even a noveeeelllll.

Ah, now I really do feel better, hey the sun’s out.

Dawn.

It's snowing here...

Dawn,
I did the music thing in a previous life too! I remember the boxes of truly awful demos. We laughed at the terrible pictures, the awful songs and the hideous concepts. Now I am on the other end of it, and know what it's like waiting for that letter to come through the post telling you how wonderful your work is. I should have been nicer..... Actually, I always told people not to go to great expense to get photos, fancy packaging as the songs should be enough. I suppose that's true enough with writing as well. Your words sell you, not the way you package them.
Now my question is, how do you know who the good agents are and who are crap? I keep reading that there are some terrible agents out there. All I know about them is what is written in the Writers and Artists Yearbook. How can I tell if they are any good or not?
Sue
Sue

OK - and here's my sunday rant I have read many a book that actually didn't warm up until chapter 6. I read Les Miserables when I was 10 (don't ask!!!) What agent in their right mind would sign up Victor Hugo? Or Dickens? (I have to confess to being left worse than a cold rice pudding by Dickens). It's a sad fact of life that the world today is instant kicks. Computers, TV, books - its all the same. We get 'Wife Swap' and 'Big Brother' on TV, spam and chatrooms on the net and the equivalent in books, i.e. celebs and easy reads that are so badly written its untrue. I recently attended an RSA talk given by TV producers and directors. They were universally dissatisfied with the situation, but said clearly that if they wanted to work, they were obliged by the networks to pump out what they all saw as vapid pap. You will probably not agree with me, but I recently read William Diehl - Primal Fear - and it was one of the most atrociously written books I had ever picked up! I have been an avid Anne Rice fan for years, but of her latest offering it was said on radio 5 'If only she hadn't been an established author, her agent might have been a little more liberal with the red pen.' Having cringed my way through it, I think they were right. Other authors that I have read in the past seem to suffer from the same malady - John Grisham to name but one. And given the plodding (but brilliant) nature of some of the plots, who would publish John Le Carre as a new author now?
The reading public (as opposed to the book buying public) is, like me - I am a member of the reading public after all - crying out for good writing, new authors, innovative ideas. But they are also crying out for good TV programming, good radio, good internet content. In this day and age, if they get it, its a complete accident. It doesn't get me cross that my work doesn't get accepted. But it does get me livid that what is accepted is accepted too often for the wrong reasons.
Rant over and no disparagement intended to any of the authors mentioned - hey - they made it, so who's to complain?

Oh Sue, I still laugh at those ‘wannabe’ photos, stuck up in the office kitchen, if only they knew. Shame on me.

Publishing I’ve discovered with research, is very much like Music – reactive. If publishers can sell your ms to a ready made audience, your laughing. This is my plan of course.

Cecelia Ahern has been called (by her agent) the ‘Britney Spears of the publishing world’.

What do you think about that?

Dawn, (the Courtney Love of crime writing).