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Well, it helps a lot that my first choice agency just reopened to submissions from unpublished writers yesterday.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.

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.

I know. Though I do like to believe I write better than the majority of them. I mean, if some of the slushpile horror stories I've heard are to be believed, I've got to be somewhat ahead of the game.

I probably did get a little overinvested in this particular agency, though. They closed to unpublished submissions for two months starting right around the time I finished the manuscript and felt ready to start querying. So I've been literally checking their website every morning, just to be sure I'd be one of the first once they reopened.

And yesterday morning they did, and it made me feel so happy in the midst of all my stress over the job and Annabel's daycare. So it's kind of a bummer to have all those hopes dashed in 24 hours flat.

But I'm OK. I've already got a query in the mail to the next agent on the list.