Wednesday, October 28, 2009

First Rejection!

Yup, that means what it says... this morning when I opened my email account, I had my VERY first rejection letter! Eeeeek!

Now why--might you aks--do I sound excited about that? Well, because more often than not, agents won't even bother sending back a rejection note. They'll just throw your junk in the "slush pile" and move on with their merry little ways, not even bothering to acknowledge that you're back home waiting in frightful anticipation for a reply. Professor Dooling told me the other day that if I get a rejection letter/email/note, I should feel highly complimented, because that means the agent actually read through my material and thoughtfully considered it.

I have to admit, though, I was surprised at how fast this particular agent responded. I sent him my stuff yesterday morning. And no less than 24 hours later, I had a response. I can't help but wonder if this was because he just glossed over everything without really reading it... It doesn't really matter, I suppose. Like Dooling said, a regection note is a GOOD thing, not a bad ( : Also, I do believe J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter was rejected upwards of 29 times before getting an agent. So I have at LEAST 28 more rejections to go before I have a good excuse to fall into the depths of despair! (Haha)

This is the email. Short, simple and to the point:

Thank you for your query letter. We've had the chance to review it and, unfortunately, this project is not right for us.

Best of success to you in all your literary endeavors.


Seems good to me. He didn't say anything about my writing totally sucking and or anything... just that it wasn't a good project for him. (At least that's how I'm reading it!) He also said "best of luck..." what a saint! Way to let me down easy on my first rejection ( :

4 comments:

Rob the Awesome said...

Wow. Congrats on being rejected!

Jessica said...

Well, I guess since you are excited about it all the I can say is CONGRATULATIONS!!!

paul baker said...

haha little ironic that its a good thing to be rejected! like you said you have 28 more strikes at least until your out!!!

Julie said...

Haha. Thanks guys! I probably won't be as excited come rejection 52... but the first one was kind of cool... like in a "wow. I'm official now" sort of way.

Musica