My Novel's First Rejection

 My first novel got its first rejection notice. In a sense, this is good news: not a form letter, but a detailed response with useful feedback. The editor liked my characters, writing, and voice, and found the book "touching" and "intriguing." She felt the genre wasn’t "contiguous beginning to end."  

 I can’t help but agree there. I started off writing a rather traditional romance novel, but two of my supporting characters took it in the direction of a white-collar cozy mystery involving a plot twist. It works as a book but doesn't really fit a typical genre category. I will study the editor's suggestions carefully as soon as the sting of rejection wears off a little. I fear her ideas will probably entail a major redraft and lots of time and work. 

My friend Kristine Overbrook, published author of Redeeming the Night and other novels, gave me encouraging advice. She said the rejection is a good sign, especially considering its detailed and personalized nature. She suggested I shop the novel around to at least twenty editors and agents and get feedback from them before engaging in anything as major as a redraft. “All have different tastes,” she told me, “and what one rejects, another might love. You never know.” 

We agreed I should redraft if I get fairly consistent feedback regarding the need.  I also recently submitted to a writing contest, so I will wait for the written comments from the judges there, too. If it makes the final round, a professional editor or agent will read my work, and who knows what opportunities will come from there? In the meantime I need to research potential publishers and agents for potential submission.

Update: An agent wants to see the novel after I've rewritten it with a more traditional plot, so that's my next goal now that I've just finished a contemporary military short story, "Mud Run," for potential inclusion in an anthology. The story is written in the first person and pretty intense.

I am also researching my next novel, which needs a title. Think the Iliad meets The Mists of Avalon. Any suggestions? Post in the comments below.

Chesapeake Romance Writers 2/14/15

Saturday I attended the monthly meeting of Chesapeake Romance Writers. It was Valentine's Day. We even had a freelance reporter writing an article for the Virginian Pilot, a regional paper, about our group.

We were excited to get the publicity, especially since we will be hosting a writers' workshop, "Pages to Publication," in Williamsburg, VA, on March 14.

Our group has several published and self-published authors. Our most recent celebrations are a newly published novel by Mairi Norris and a reissue of a cute paranormal romance by Kristine Overbrook. I've read both these books and enjoyed them. (There are several more published authors, so I apologize if I missed anybody and will try to work more names and publications into future posts).

If you think our meeting was strictly a social event or all about love and romance, think again. Writing is a business. The focus of our meeting was on how to get the most out of writers' conferences, including the one coming up in Williamsburg. There were even ideas for authors who plan to attend the national RWA conference that will be held in New York City this year. Our most experienced authors said that the New York conference is the most expensive, but well worth it, because so many agents and editors are based in New York. We were told to study the editors and agents who will be present at a conference, decide which ones we most want to pitch to, and write up a cheat sheet on each one of these before we go. We should be prepared to pitch to them not only at formal events but at a chance meeting in a bar or restaurant, for example. The trick is to take advantage of opportunities like this without being rude or pushy.

Authors practiced writing "elevator pitches." These are one-sentence descriptions of our books that not only concisely summarize our novel but leave the potential editor or agent with questions--so they want to know more. Hopefully they will ask for a submission. Elevator pitches are used at those chance encounters described above.

With some help from a fellow author, I came up with a decent elevator pitch for the novel I'm working on. The group liked it. Other authors worked on the material that they would put on the back of the book or inside the jacket.

We also got some ideas of what to say during three-minute, formal pitches. The general advice was to introduce yourself and the genre of your book, its length in pages and number of words, whether it is complete-- preferably it is, even if it is still in the revision stage-- and a little bit about it. Editors will usually start asking questions that allow the writer to fill out the remaining time. Most are very nice people. Knowing something about the editor and the editor's interests is helpful in establishing a rapport with him or her.

I decided my novel, at 48,000 words, is not far along enough to justify the expense of a trip to New York City. Hopefully by this time next year I will be able to report that it is ready to submit to editors, agents, competitions, critiques, pitches at conferences, or other events. The RWA conference is held in NYC once every four years, so I'm a little sad to be missing this opportunity.

Which reminds me--it's time to work on my book!