I made my first submission before xmas and it was rejected soon after. It wasn't surprising and didn't bother me much but I had hoped getting over the first submission and rejection would encourage me to go on. That hasn't been the case. More and more I find myself wanting to go it alone. Submitting my book to publishers actually feels wrong. And the only time my gut has ever been wrong is when it's said yes to an oversized chocolate fudge cake!
I just keep thinking this series has a different destiny. This particular book isn't meant to join the same race everyone else and if anything the wording of my rejection said the same... although perhaps I'm seeing what I want to see.
Comments anyone?
Excellent reply , Dor.
Victoria, you have nothing to lose by blitzing agents/agencies with your work.
When I finish my last thorough edit I will send out numerous submissions.
If I fail in the UK, I will try the Usa, Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world.
Rejections should not deter you if you believe in your novel.
Self-publishing should be your last option.
Victoria, I am confident you are reading far too much into this rejection. It sounds like a standard form. You'd get the same letter whether you sent something good but not for them, or something completely illiterate. It does not mean a thing. Really.
Now, with regards to self-pubbing - it is, in some ways, a tougher race than the trade agent/publisher route. Are you confident you are able to act as your own publisher? Are you willing/able to put in the time?
It sounds as if you want to take it because you don't feel able to deal with the rejection of the Query-Go-Round, but how are you going to feel when you get your first 3 star review, or your 2 star, or the *whispers* 1 star? How are you going to feel when your best efforts are met with deafening silence?
Do not mistake self-pubbing as a good way to get a trade deal, the "testing the waters" Jennifer mentions above. I've seen agents quote 20,000 units sold - not free downloads - as the kind of number you'll need to interest them. If the first in the series does badly, you will likely be tied into self-pubbing the rest of it. This may not be a bad thing because you are getting paid for the extra work you are doing and there's nothing like a backlist to boost sales, but if you don't want to do self-publishing long term, it's something to think about.
I'm a little concerned by the 30 grand you've mentioned. That kind of figure suggests something a vanity press (subsidy publisher is another name for a vanity outfit - if you pay AND they receive a royalty share, they are vanity. An author services company, somebody you pay to produce your book eg Telemachus or Bookbaby do not receive a royalty share.) and if you find one who you think would suit you, I suggest you look very carefully at whether they are able to do things you can't do yourself. Listing on itunes, Amazon, B&N are all free and anybody can do them - even Waterstones has an application for books to be listed on their website. Are the blog tours organised to places where your audience is?
If you haven't, get some brutal feedback from your peers. I'm always mentioning the Absolute Write Water Cooler, I'll mention it again now. They've also got a self-publishing section where members keep a record of their journeys and often post statistics. You may find it useful to do your own comparison of their sales figures, the time they spend on promotion, and the quality of their books.
At the end of the day, I think you need to be clear about what you want. I, for instance, want to write and I want to write well. I'm highly unlikely to ever self-publish my "real" writing because I'd lose the writing time I have to self-promotion and career management, but I've got a few ideas for self-pubbing projects which I may one day have a go at. We'll see.
If you just want the work out there some time in the next decade, and are happy to sell 200 copies, and if you have the time and skills to be your own publisher and feel the book would be better served with you in total control of it, great! Self-publish. There is no point in forcing yourself to do something which makes you unhappy. The Query-Go-Round is tough and trade publishing is not for everybody and there are plenty of books which are better suited to self-publishing.
However, if you want a trade deal, go for a trade deal. Yes, rejections are disappointing; yes, the commercial considerations are frustrating; yes, it is a massive uphill slope it feels like I'll never get to the top of, but -
I have a full request out with an amazing agent because I sent out 40 odd submissions and kept on going even when I felt it was a waste of time. I have rejections which spell my name wrong, which get my gender wrong, and one which came back within a 24 hours of being sent (I do know better, but it still felt like they *really* hated it). I have a friend who took 250+ queries to get her agent. If this full comes back as a reject, I'm going to start on US agents because I know my work is not useless, and I know the difference between a published writer and an unpublished one is persistence. But mainly I know I would rather write another, better book, rather than spending my spare time trying to sell this one. Writing is not exactly a chore.
Work out what you want. Work out what you can do. And good luck.
(If you do decide to chase agents, take the NIKE approach (Just Do It) and send them out in batches. Yes, it's tempting to send them one at a time but believe me, if you were going to get feedback you would also get requests. If it's not ready to go you shouldn't be sending it to anybody.)
I chose to take rejections as feedback, and not in a negative way. Just because one publisher isn't interested, it doesn't mean no one will be. And that's not the only root available. Keep plugging away. think of it as being like a woodpecker: each little chip gets you closer to what you want. Good luck