Thursday, August 24, 2006

Wish Me Luck!



Dear Joshua,

Thank you for your query of RUNAWAY SWIMMER. I am interested in reading the entire manuscript. My mailing information is:

Literary Agency
address omitted

On the outside of the envelope, please write: RMJK

Again, thank you, and I look forward to reading your submission.

Sincerely

name omitted
agency name omitted Literary Agency

7 comments:

mullinz8 said...

This is very cool! Sipper, I hope you blow them away. Please keep us posted and tell us the name of the agency. At least give us a hint off blog.

I would like you to sign your copy to me on the cover so that I can place it on my wall of shame between Harrison Ford and Lyle Lovett.

Diana said...

That's great!! Congrats!

JS said...

Hey Sip, totally cool! God is throwing down on you!
Say, out of curiosity, how long ago did these folks get info you sent to them?

bigsip said...

Thanks, all!

These folks got my query about 2 weeks ago. I've waited as long as 8 weeks to receive a response, positive or negative, from an agent/publisher before, though.

Once I send the manuscript, I stand to wait another 3 months or more to hear back.

The turn around in literature is pretty long, though. Out of the somewhere around 90 agents or publishers I've queried, probably 15 have asked to see more. Out of those 15, 5 really struggled with whether or not to agent/publish.

Of course, out of those, I had no luck, but those people gave me something to hold onto and have told me that I'm good enough to be published, but my timing is off or the market for my type of book isn't "in season".

This is hard work, but I love it.

BTW, the agency is The Ferguson Literary Agency. They seem fairly new, but they're rated well by Preditors and Editors.

Thanks for the prayers and encouragement, y'all!

mullinz8 said...

btw i love the picture on the post, just to note.

JS said...

on a side nite, slightly related to this one, I have been sending out post cards to companies with my hippos on them. Got my first responce this week! "We have no use for your style of art" the post card read!
But for some reason that doesn't get me down! Im just glad they replied!
so, to me, thats a success!

bigsip said...

YESSSS!

You got your first rejection!

Actually, Jamison, that's a big step.

MY suggestion would be to look at cards in stores that are similar to your style and submit to the company on the back.

I've been submitting and getting rejected for a couple of years now. Of course, I've been getting acceptances for articles and such now which is a real boon for me.

It's these little successes that prod you on, my friend.

We are very much in the same boat!

I congratualte you. Now, keep that rejection in a pile that may or may not hold more rejects and submit at least 10 more illustrations to companies. As long as you're producing and submitting, you can't go wrong.

Tenacity is one of the first steps to success, my friend. I applaud you!