No Luck So Far

More rejections coming in. Well, by "more" I mean "two more" since I got my first one less than 24 hours after I sent it out. The second rejection letter I got was from someone who has a policy of not actually sending out rejection emails, and the third was probably the most polite letter I've gotten yet. It didn't say anything about my writing itself, they (it was sent by the agent's assistant) just said Seafear didn't seem "right for their current list of projects."

Curiously, the rejections I've gotten were from all three agents who specifically asked that I include the first five pages of my book with the query. After I got the first rejection so quickly, this really doesn't surprise me. I recognize that when an agent asks for sample pages, that's what they're looking at instead of the query letter. I also recognize that the first five pages of Seafear aren't the most exciting things ever written.

But it's essential to the story. Agents, editors, and other writers are consistently harking on "show not tell!" And I agree -- it's best to show something rather than telling it. So I say Matthias has seafear and that its effects are pretty bad -- do I just talk about this, or do I show it? I show it, of course -- I show why at 17 he's not okay at all with going on a ship, and why that provides a significant amount of tension throughout the novel. I have to show what happened to him when he was seven, simply because the plot dictates it.

And I have faith in my plot. I believe that it's good (and, I guess more importantly for these agents, able to sell). I don't have enough conceit to say that I'm the greatest writer who has ever condescended to transcribe his eminently important thoughts on paper, but I do know how to write well.

So I still have faith that my queries with other agencies will solicit some interest. I sent the first ten pages to one agent, and I think the second five more than make up for the first five, in terms of style and suspense. The other four agencies didn't ask for any sample pages, so I just have to hope that my query itself is enough to garner attention. If they all say no, I'll be querying more and more agents. Because it only takes one yes.