Is This the Worst Time to Be Unpublished?
First of all, thanks so much to everyone for the support today. It's no fun at all when you receive a rejection letter and even though Jamie Ford (NY Times Bestseller) sent me a lovely note telling me that there's nothing wrong with a few rejections, it's still an occasion that calls for extra sugar in the tea and a mild hissy fit at not being able to afford chocolate.
The important thing when your work is rejected is to be analytical; evaluate whether you could have done anything to improve your chances or not, and work out how to vary your strategy next time.
I was fortunate enough to meet someone who's been rejected by this particular agency and gone on to be published elsewhere. He told me to pay very close attention to their wording if they rejected me as they are good at pointing out exactly where writers have gone wrong.
They said nothing negative about my writing. They described it as 'fluent and easy to read' and went on to explain that the marketplace has become very tough and they lack the confidence to take me on in this marketplace. Basically: 'there's a recession; you're unpublished; we don't want to take a gamble.'
I've noticed that this is happening to quite a number of new writers at the moment and it's understandable. I'm not cross with this agent for not taking a chance on my writing, I'm just frustrated. If they'd told me that the characters weren't strong enough or the writing jarred I would have something to work with. This isn't something I can edit my way out of.
Everyone's going through this at the moment. Companies are closing and qualified people are unemployed. Why should the creative industries be any different?
Our writing can't just be 'good enough' or even 'fluent and easy to read' any more. It must be extraordinary. It must be the equivalent of the Family Guy episode that screened in England last night - The King and I with robots and strippers. If it's not completely different then it won't get noticed. If it is completely different, however, doesn't that also make it a risk?
I suppose I'm asking two questions:
1/how do agents/publishers make the right choices in the current market so that their own businesses don't go under?
2/how are we, as writers, supposed to handle these choices?
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