Thursday, July 17, 2008

Another choice -- there's no end to them!

I have to decide what to do about submitting my manuscript to Alice and Richard’s publisher. I’m still inclined to pass on it. I feel like it’s already a rejection. For this publisher to air out her prejudices before even seeing one word of my manuscript I find unconscionable.

Here’s what she said:
“She can go ahead and send it to me, but there’s not a huge chance I’ll want to publish it based on this description. I’ve received lots of submissions written by mothers or spouses of deceased people, mostly written to honor the deceased it seems, and they are almost never strong enough to warrant publication. But maybe this will be the exception, so I’ll take a look.”

I don’t think I want to subject myself to a rejection in the making. Had she just left it at “have her send it to me” without any negative comments, the outcome may be the same, but at least I’d have thought I was getting a fair shot.

But, then Alice says I could be the exception, and what do I have to lose – except the postage? Well, I can think of what I’d lose – self confidence and the will to keep going with this. Rejections are hard for me to take. I don’t want to feel as bad as I felt just reading those words that really have nothing to do with me or my book.

However, if I do decide to submit, I’ll take Jackie’s advice – never again submit on an exclusive basis. I’ll send out a slew of queries while waiting to hear from this not so open minded publisher.

So, what do you think out there? Submit or not?

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