My heart broke a bit when I realized that my name was sadly absent.
It took a few minutes. I thought I might sniffle a bit. But, no tears...just that little hollow feeling.
But, when I really thought about it, I realized, I'm okay. It's a learning experience. My pitch didn't do the job, therefore I need to work on my pitch.
Let's face it, writing the story is the easy part. All the stuff that comes after is where the real work lies. All the edits, the proofing, the marketing, the pitching...
I find the marketing and pitching to be the most difficult part of the writer life. I don't want to push my work on others. I don't want to come off like I think I'm the greatest thing since...well, pick your favorite cliché. I just want to tell a story that draws the reader into the world I've created, taking them on a harrowing journey with some wild and crazy characters. I want to entertain.
So as a very memory deficient little fish once said, "Just keep writing, that's what we do, we wriiiiiiite!"
Sad to hear you didn't make it. But like you said, this speaks only to the pitch, not your story. So far, everything I've wrote doesn't meet the qualifications for one reason or another, so I didn't even get *in* to begin with!
ReplyDeleteIt made me re-polish the book as well, so I'm going to update all the versions so they sparkle even more.
DeleteSorry you didn't make it in, Millie!! It's SO subjective, which you already know. I made it through into Pitch Wars when they had like a thousand entries and I was so excited--but when it finally got to the agent round there were like three of us out of the thirty or so alternates that didn't get ANY requests or comments from agents. There were people getting five and six requests on their pitch, and they were on the same thread as me, so it's not like I could even pretend agents hadn't seen mine.
ReplyDeleteI was SO crushed. Of course like two days after that I got a rejection on a partial I'd been super excited about. Bad week. But I kept swimming. haha
And I made it through to the next round with ABNA--to my shock, since it's the same query that's been being shot down all over town. You just never know what's going to stick, so you gotta keep trying!!
Thanks Tamara, I'm pretty much feeling fine. I know the more rejection that comes my way, the truer a writer I really am! Can't just take the easy road now, can we? Luckily, I've got good shocks, so I can handle all the little bumps. Good luck to you. If you get to that point where we can all read and post our reviews let me know...I'd be happy to help in any way I can!
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