Brendan Cody’s Blog

Slow blog posts and suspiciously fast rejections

July 2nd, 2007

I haven’t posted to the blog in a while. A lot of things have been keeping me busy; sick family members, emmigrating friends, or work projects that demanded my time. My only writing output these last two months was a short story which needed to be in before a competition deadline.

It’s hard to write when there is no deadline, and no gaurantee of any earnings from it (especially something on the grand time-consuming scale of a novel). So I force myself to keep up the momentum and prompt an interest from an agent that might give me some hard focus again. I have prepared a half-dozen agent submissions with the revised novel outline. I sent out two to begin with, and one of them was returned by an agent in 1 week. Now, maybe I’m just the mistrustful type, but that kind of turnaround time leaves me very suspicious. Was the submission read at all? The first line of their rejection letter even acknowledges that they know it is suspiciously short: “We are replying as soon as possible to give you the best chance of finding an agent.”

Hmm. Thanks, I think.

I would offer a tip from a mere aspiring novelist to any agents out there: at least hold on to the submission for a week or two before firing it back. That way potential authors might actually believe the submission has been fully read, and believe the sentiment of the final line: “Don’t be disheartened by this letter.”

What’s that I hear, could it be the sound of my skin thickening?

Entry Filed under: Writing