February 5, 2009
In the publishing world, things run notoriously slowly. My mentor, Dean, has called it a “glacial pace.” This is true in terms of how long it takes a project to come to fruition. It can literally take years for a single story or essay to see print in a hard copy format. “Glacial pace” also applies to how slowly editors and agents work when it comes to submissions from relatively unknown writers. When I send out unsolicited queries to editors or agents, it can take forever to hear back from them. It’s just the way it is; they have other priorities related to known quantities or properties that speak more convincingly to them in one way or another. What I hate, though, is when every editor and agent is on strict radio silence for a prolonged period of time. That’s the exact phase I’m in at the moment with my marketing efforts. I’ve sent out bunches of queries. Most of them have gotten no reply. A few have led to requests for manuscripts…but I’m not hearing back from anyone about them. At the same time, I have a bunch of short stories in circulation, and the editors I’ve sent to aren’t getting back to me. So I have all these hooks in the water, and no one’s getting back to me…and there’s absolutely no way to speed up the process. I’m at the mercy of the editors and agents, who are the gatekeepers. I just have to wait and see when they decide to break radio silence.
It’s a terrible feeling, waiting for something to happen. I would probably go totally insane if not for the fact that I’m writing a new novel, and I have high hopes for it. I’m working hard, cranking out my Daily Grand word quota, and it’s keeping my mind off the outstanding manuscripts and queries. Which is exactly how writers survive…and hopefully, eventually, thrive. Write, submit, repeat. See you tomorrow!
