Step 7: Question Your Life Choices

Another day, another rejection.

The struggle is real.

Two rejections, to be precise. One was from a known fantasy agent who also happens to represent one of my husband's favorite authors, so I wasn't too surprised to find that my book wasn't up their alley. The other one, though, seemed like they would have been a perfect fit for me based on their bio, so I can't help but be a little disappointed.

I'm genuinely starting to second-guess the strength of my query letter. The first couple of agents I queried requested the full manuscript right off the bat, so I thought I was hitting the right notes. But every agent who has responded since has rejected my idea based on my query letter alone, which means it's probably time to do some retooling. I still have ten queries out; I'll try to resist the urge to mail out more until I hear back from a few more agents.

Literary Hydra: Reject one query letter, and ten more will appear.

I've had a nagging sensation plague me ever since I heard back from an agent who had read the full and mentioned that they had had problems connecting with the narrative. Grammar can be edited, and dialogue can be revised, but I'm concerned that a narrative problem is a fault in the very foundation of the story and can't be fixed without a major rehaul. It wouldn't be the first time I've rewritten Defining Lines, but it's hard to spot the problems when you can't see them yourself.

Not sure if plot hole or a selling point.

It's a little way too early to start questioning whether I have a viable story on my hands, but people aren't kidding when they say this industry moves at a glacial pace. It's rough on the ego to wait several weeks only to get a form rejection in response, and I'm not getting any younger. I think about my chances of landing an agent, and my slimmer chances of getting a book deal, and my even further minuscule chances of it going on to becoming a bestseller, and... well, you can see why it's tempting to throw in the towel.  Head, meet wall.

It's kind of like that.

EDIT: In the time that I wrote this post, I received another rejection. Trying to stay positive.

NBD. Just gonna go throw myself in front of a bus.