Looking over the Horizon

So I am now the proud owner of two published novels; that and five bucks bought me the iced coffee drink that’s sitting next to my laptop.

I got a form rejection letter from my first choice agent in the mail Monday. I had high hopes, had done my research, actually met the agent at a conference a couple of years ago and figured I had a decent shot, but alas nothing came of it.

That’s pretty much how the industry works. I have this theory that the vast majority of material sent to editors and publishers get turned down because it doesn’t deserve to be printed. That said once you’re “There” it’s still not easy to get published.

I’ve heard agents at conferences say that less than one percent of work submitted end up being represented. While a high percentage of what’s submitted isn’t fit to print I’m pretty sure that the percentage of publishable novels in the slush pile has to be at least slightly higher than one percent. I’ve read a lot of unpublished work so I’d probably say two to four percent of what’s submitted to agents is publishable. So not only do you have to have a worthwhile book you need to be submitting to the right agent at the right time with a good query package. It’s basically a big game of chance even if you have a stellar novel. I’ve heard that J.K. Rowling queried more than twenty agents, and once she had an agent most of the major YA publishers passed on Harry Potter before Bloomsberry picked her up.

Still it hurts to put your soul into something and have it turned down, especially when your top option gets eliminated. So you take a day, you get over it and research the next agent on the list. So long as you’re hitting professional agents there isn’t that much one agent can do for you that the next one can’t.

So by the time you read this my work will be submitted to another agent.