Back to the Office
For most writers, it's a financial fact: we don't make enough from our writing to pay the bills. Even if you have an amazing spouse like I do, expenses come up, life intrudes, making it necessary to go back to "work".
I'm going to an agency this morning to register for contract assignments doing technical writing, web design, or basically anything office-related that I can do well and that pays well. All I really want to do is continue to write, but I realize that sometimes God or Life makes us wait.
Since April, I've been submitting my latest novel to literary agents, and unfortunately none of them (in this round) took the bait. They loved the query and synopsis, which made them request the book, and EVERY one of them really liked the book. But...(there's always one of these)...something didn't "quite work for them". I managed to get read by several prestigious agencies, including Curtis Brown and William Morris, so no matter what, at least I can say that. Only about 1% of 1% of writers even get read by William Morris.
The thing that's maddening is that none of them ever agree on what they think is wrong with the book. One agent loves my PI, Dakota; another one thinks he's too rough. One woman agent thinks Svetlana is "too perfect"; a man agent says, "How can you not like Svetlana?"
My wife, Alexas, thinks (and I think she's right) that their rejecting the book is less a statement about the book and its quality and more a statement about their lack of confidence that they can sell it. Also—and this is pretty good advice for all writers querying agents or submitting manuscripts for consideration—if you're new and unknown, agencies are a lot more reluctant to take you on because you're not a "sure thing" for them.
One thing I've discovered is that there's a big difference between what some of them say in their books (i.e., the idyllic picture they paint of the publishing world—"Just write a good story and agents will beat a path to your door") and the reasons they give for not being willing to represent you. I understand how hard they work and how inundated with manuscripts they are, but sometimes I think the amount of CRAP they have to sift through on a daily basis has jaded them to quality material. That's my belief, anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not quitting. It's not in me to quit. I've been working at this since I was 13, and I'm not about to put aside my dream now. It's just that I'm a little burned out. I've done everything I can think of, and I don't know what else to do. So, it's time to wait. Retreat into an office job for a little while and let God and the Universe take the reins for a while.
But, I shall return...