The Pollyannas of Publishing

The roller coaster ride that is our quest for publication continues. As you all know, we've been at this for about a month now and it's tough. Laura compares having agents and editors read your book to having a teacher who hates your guts grade one of your papers. It's totally subjective and every person who reads the book has a different opinion. I'd go into the whole thing about opinions and assholes, but I think you get the idea.

One agent thought our concept was great, but the execution was flawed. Another agent loved the writing, but didn't think the concept was marketable. Some agents have requested fulls peppered with phrases like "love it" and lots of exclamation marks. Other agents have sent us pathetic form rejections limited to three words "not for me." One day we're over the moon that an agent requested the full and indicated that they're excited to read it based off the 50 page excerpt they read. The next day we want to cry because we got a form rejection on a query.

The bottom line is this. Writing a book is hard. Finding an agent is even harder. And getting the book published is about as likely as winning the lottery. But here's the thing. We're determined. We know our book is good, and we also know that the right agent or editor can help us make it better. We will work our asses off to make our book the best it can possibly be, so, that's our story and we're sticking to it. You love our concept, but hate the execution? Tell us what the problem is, we'll fix it. You hate the concept, but love our style and voice? Tell us what's marketable and we'll write it.

At this point, there is no edit we won't consider, no concept we won't explore. Our goal is to be successful writers and we'll do whatever it takes to make it happen. Today we decided to be the Pollyannas of the publishing world. The glass is always half full, your thoughts are always welcome and we'll even read your rejections with a smile. The truth is, we love this. Every single part of it. Even the rejections. So bring it on agents and editors. We're ready.