Sorry that it has been a little while since my last post. It is that time of year where everything is just crazy! This year was even more crazy than usual with my oldest son going to classmate's birthday parties within the last few weeks, as well as having one of his own. Then Thanksgiving rolled around and it was time to be thankful for what you have and to enjoy time with family. And I have much to be thankful for! Now comes Christmas, one my most favorite times of the year! I look forward to seeing the looks on my children's faces when they see the personalized messages that Santa has sent to mommy's email for them, and when they open their presents. What a special time childhood is!
In the midst of all of this activity, I also found out by reading several agent's blogs that the website where I had looked to tell me what word count is acceptable for a novel was apparently not right. Since I am in the process of sending Guardian out to agents for possible representation, I decided that I needed to give it a fighting chance (as I read in the a couple of agent's blogs that if it is too high or too low on word count they automatically reject) so I spent some time increasing the word count. I thought, at times, my eyes would cross and my back would give out from sitting so much. I can now say that I did everything in my power to help it to attract representation.
On my journey to becoming an author I have learned many things. Especially with Guardian. If you are looking for a profession that will keep you humble, then you should definitely become an author. You may think that your story is fantastic, and so too might your fan base, but you will still receive more rejections than anything else...as is the case with even the most famous authors.
Every query letter you send off with a prayer that this agent will be the one that likes your story enough to want to see more. You know that if they just read the whole book, they are going to want to represent you. Each response you get that is a crushing rejection will ultimately say approximately the same thing... "This field is subjective and we encourage you to keep looking for the right person to represent your work. Please don't take this as a reflection on your writing ability, as it is not intended as such." And they usually close with something like, "best of luck." It is highly frustrating!
What I see also, though, on some of the writer websites that I frequent is that I am not alone in this frustrating, humbling, but ultimately rewarding quest. And that if I can manage to just keep my faith in myself and my work, despite the humbling rejections, so, too, might I come out victorious in the end!
