Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Writing Wednesdays: Rejection Suggestion

Hey all. It's been a busy week, so there has been little going on on the writing front (although I HAVE been brainstorming for the Russia book and I'm still super excited; I can't wait till things calm down a little and I can actually write the darn thing - although with my Russian training starting in two weeks, that might not be until after the move. *Sigh*).

Querying, however, waits for no man. At least the response part, anyway. See, you might send off your query on a random Tuesday, excited to be getting another possibility out there in the universe. And then you might not think about it for a while, or at least try not to. And when Friday evening rolls around, you're REALLY not thinking about. It's Friday, people. It's time to forget about querying and get ready for the weekend!

Unfortunately, rejection is a wily creature. It's always out there, ready to pounce when you least expect it. And when *I* least expect it is Friday evening/the weekend. Those are generally my safety zones. A rejection on a Monday morning? Sure, I can handle it. Monday mornings suck anyway! But when you're waiting to see your best friend at the airport on a Friday evening, excited for the good times ahead, the last thing you want is a rejection popping up in your inbox. Ugh. The worst.

No, wait, I lie. The WORST is on Sunday morning, when you're exhausted from a miserable night's sleep in a strange hotel bed, and you're just trying to make yourself presentable so you can dive head-first into the chocolate chip pancakes you ordered at a little diner in Williamsburg. Not that this has happened to me, of course. I'm just sayin', hypothetically. It's the worst.

So here is my suggestion: I know agents are busy with their clients during the week, and evenings/weekends are probably the only time they have to get to the slush pile/querying queue. But if it's not too much of an inconvenience, could you please - pretty please with sugar on top - hold the rejections for Monday morning? Or even Saturday morning, so I have the Friday/Sunday buffer? Requests for material can come at 4 a.m. on a Wednesday or 3 p.m. on a Saturday or at high tide on a full moon during Ramadan for all I care. It's just rough starting and ending a weekend with a rejection.

Hypothetically, of course.

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