I got my first agent rejection on the new project today: "Although your work sounds intriguing, I'm sorry to say that I don't believe I am the right agent for you."

Oh well. Her loss. One down, 40 or 50 to go.

I'm sorry, Susan. I have a stack of rejection letters here from publishers, and I'm not at the point where I can say it's their loss. I keep reading them and thinking, "I suck."

Well, it helps a lot that my first choice agency just reopened to submissions from unpublished writers yesterday. I won't be as philosophical if they reject me.

Titles: Mine are never very good. Any thoughts?

I used to be good at romance titles -- my boss and I would sit and brainstorm in her office over books that needed new ones. My own titles, not so much, unless I get the occasional inspiration.

Titles are hard. And there's more that goes into it than you think -- the tone, the genre, a sense of humor (or not), and on and on.

It's funny, I'm titling the individual chapters of my WIP, but I have no idea what the title of the actual book is going to be. I have the same problem titling short stories I write. I guess the chapter titles are easier because they don't mean as much.

Yeah, titles are tough. It's one of the reasons I make myself title my drabbles. I need the experience.

With my song titles, it's easy, because I can be deliberately vague and get away with it. But that's a whole different thing.

So far I haven't had too much trouble with titles, though it does take a lot of internal mumbling. I pretty much go with the old "what's the theme" thing and try to avoid anything too cutesy or trite.

My problem is summaries. I hate giving away big plot points, but I can't help thinking I'm being so vague as to not make it sound very interesting.

Um, you know how I said I wouldn't be so philosophical if I got a no from my dream agency?

Well, I have one now. Just 24 hours after I sent the query.

Cue me in a funk, worried that NO ONE is going to give me a chance. I mean, these guys seemed like such a good fit, and the head agent said in a Q&A I participated in recently that she thought the way to go with historical romance was to try something a bit different, go bigger and more epic, which, HELLO?, my book totally does.

It's a good book. It really is. I'd say that even if it wasn't my book.

t runs off to frown at query letter and try to figure out if that's what's causing the problem, because my book so doesn't suck!

But there are about a thousand people like you who think they're a good fit for that particular agency, Susan. The trouble is, the agency can't take on all of them.

And you know what? Sometimes it's as simple as the subjective stuff erika and I were talking about last week or thereabouts. Something can be technically *good* and have all its parts and pieces, but if it doesn't ping me emotionally the day I read it, I'm not buying it/representing it. There's truly a gestalt element to writing, you know? The whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, in ways that don't always make a lot of sense on an objective level.