Monday, March 12, 2012

Disappointing News

I know I've mentioned that I sent MY SUNNY VAMPIRE to an agent back in June. I was very excited – I had pitched that book at Nationals in NYC. Time went on and I received no word. I sent a nudge in September and found out she never received the material. Hope surged upward once again. And again, time went on without a word.

I understand agents are busy and I did my best to be patient. But after six months, I issued another nudge.

Yes, my novel was rejected. But in a way it was a good rejection (if there is such a thing). She loved my writing, loved my characters, thought the romance and conflict were great, she just had a problem with my vampires and wasn't sure she could sell them in the crowded market.

It's disappointing because I love my vampires.

It's encouraging because someone (other than a friend or family member) loved my writing.

I still have other options out there for my vampires, but if I get the same response, I may have to "shelve" these stories until I'm prepared to publish them on my own. I refuse to put these stories under the bed.

In the meantime, I'll continue to edit SARAH'S TURN because it deserves to be polished (and I have friends that want to read it). I consider this round of edits to be practice, if nothing else, so that when I get back to GHOSTLY LIAISON, I'll be even better.

Oh, and if you had been following THE WRiTE CLUB, I'll have you know I almost made it to the finals (lost by two votes). The piece I entered was the beginning of GHOSTLY LIAISON and I used the pen name of Jamie Stuart – a name I kind of grew attached to and seriously considered using as a real pen name, until I discovered too many other Jamie Stuarts out there. So, I'll stick with Stacy McKitrick. At least my name pops up first when I Google that!


5 comments:

Anne Gallagher said...

YOu know here's the thing. If you're vampire stories are getting great feedback from agents, but no one is taking them up because of an overcrowded market you SHOULD self- publish them. Especially if you have more than one, a trilogy perhaps. Just because an agent can't sell them, doesn't mean they won't sell. Remember NY is publishing under a whole different set of rules, than indies or small pubs. And I've found if people like a genre, or a book, or an author, they read everything they can.

Which is why I self-pubbed. I was getting great feedback from agents but I had used them all up because I write Regency and it's such a niche market. No one wanted to take me on, because there're only so many publishers that would publish regency romance. So I bit the bullet and self-published, and I never went crazy with any kind of marketing at all and now I'm selling crazy amounts of books with hardly any reviews at all, and basically just word of mouth.

If I can learn how to upload a doc to Kindle, so can you. Covers you can do yourself too, but I chose to hire someone. So much less pressure. It's just a couple of clicks. You could do it if you wanted. And also, If you only uploaded the Vampire books, and got some good numbers from them, you could use those numbers to woo agents with your other books, if you wanted too. (But I think if you self-publish you won't want an agent after that.)

And if you ever want to discuss this idea, you can always email me. Contrary to what I said on my blog today, I check my mail every day.

Maria Zannini said...

I imagine vampire stories are pretty hard to sell right now. But these things trend. It'll be back in demand in no time.

Ref: agent
6 months is too long to wait. I hate it when they don't respond. I don't care if they are busy. This is their job. If they don't want it, it's easy enough to send a form letter.

B.E. Sanderson said...

Sorry about your rejection, but yeah, at least it was a positive one. Hang in there. She's one agent out of a ton. Keep trying. I bet Meyer had a tough time at first with her sparkly vampires. And if the traditional route can't see the value of your work, then go for the self-pub route. =o)

Heh, I'm almost wondering if the agent who did that to you was the same agent who did the exact same thing to me a while back. She could be a serial requester / misplacer / rejecter. If so, you're really better off without her.

The Happy Whisk said...

Sorry to hear about the news but it sounds like you're keeping your chin up. Good for you.

Keep on truckin'. You'll get there.

Stacy McKitrick said...

Thanks for all the kind words. It's much appreciated.

I'm not ready to self-pub yet, but I won't count it out, either.