I guess I should have been careful what I wished for. Last week I was worrying that I hadn’t gotten any responses for various things I’ve sent out into the world. On Sunday, I got one.
Thank you so much for sending me your submission. I have carefully considered UNDEAD RISING for my list, but in the end it just wasn’t the right fit for me. And that’s not because I got eaten by the zombies lol 😦
I’m going to pass, but am so grateful for the opportunity to review your work. I appreciate how difficult this process can be and wish you all the best and much success in your search for the right agent.
That’s a rejection email from the inimitable Louise Fury, who had seemed particularly excited about my manuscript when I talked to her about it at DFW Con.
So now, as I’ve had experience as a lovesick teenage girl, I’m going to parse what she said for “hidden meanings.”
The first two sentences are obvious: She’s polite but saying no. The third one is killer, though–she must have at least somewhat enjoyed my tongue-in-cheek zombie gamebook (it’s inevitable you’ll die when reading it. That’s part of the fun, I swear!) She gave me a “lol”! She gave me a “:-(“. That tells me she was engaged in it.
That leaves the rest, standard ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’ language. That’s ok. It’s just hard to know what to do next.
I still have another full floating out there with an agent. I’m not sure what to do next (assuming I a) don’t hear from the other agent or b) she also rejects it); I know I sank my query battleship by trying to break the mold a little to be different (this was a catastrophic failure), so odds are good I could restart the query process.
OR, since it may just be that zombies are no longer seen as marketable but my book is still good, I may try to self-pub it and get it out around Halloween. (Probably wishful thinking at this point)
I don’t know. Tough decisions.
What’s your rejection advice?
M.E. Kinkade 