Another Month...Another Rejection

Well, here's the writer kind of dragging his feet. It was a good start to his new book, but there hasn't been a new page, let alone word, for almost a month now. It's almost like he's preoccupied with something else...

Truth be told, I am. I've got a lot of things on my plate outside of writing the new book. Among them:

- a wife who is expecting
- finishing up my firefighting training
- helping a friend move to California next month
- retooling the 1st and 2nd book for submission

So, I've got all the excuses in the world, right? Bottom line is, I've kind of dropped the ball and I'm upset with myself for letting it slide away. This isn't, of course, to say that I'll NEVER finish my 3rd book. It's, uh...just on the back-burner for now.

Onto other business:

I got another rejection today for a place I submitted stuff to...well, a long time ago. Here it is:

Dear Writer,

Thank you very much for your letter of inquiry. I appreciate your interest and your desire to submit your manuscript to us. However, after considering the nature of your material and our current commitments, I am sorry to say that I cannot ask to see your manuscript.

Best of luck in finding a suitable publisher for your work, and thank you for thinking of Antheneum.

Sincerely,

Ginee Seo
VP Associate Publisher

She's apologizing for not being able to ask to see my manuscript. Now I've heard it all.

Anyway...I won't beat this to death. It still stinks to get a rejection letter...even if I don't remember sending them a query. That's how long it's been.

Other Business:

The girlfriend of my best friend works for a big company here in Minneapolis. You can probably figure it out if you stay on target. (hint) Anyway, they just sponsored a big children's book event last weekend and she chatted up a children's author and told him about my book. Like a real trooper, she also asked what I should be doing to get my foot in the door or at least headed in the right direction.

Long story short: he's agreed to look at a synopsis and a couple of chapters. In turn, he'll show them to his agent and he/she will hopefully have some suggestions or some places I can target either in the agent world or actual publishing houses.

Pretty exciting. However, I don't have a synopsis done that I'm especially proud of. I'm not sure what my problem is. I can pitch the story backwards and forwards, but actually breaking the story into engaging bite-sized chunks is another story altogether.

How easy is it to break down a 252 page children's novel? I've got my work cut out for me, I think. Truth be told, I'd rather write a whole new book than go through this, but hey...maybe this is the kick in the pants I need.

I can see what I'll be doing this weekend...

Stay tuned for details.

(Side note: Is anyone actually reading this? Don't be shy. I definitely won't bite. I'd be interested in what you're writing (if you are indeed writing) or anything else about my anonymous readers. Just a simple 'Hey KMC' would suffice.)