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 They closed to unpublished submissions for two months starting right around the time I finished the manuscript and felt ready to start querying.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.

Amy, insent to your gmail.

Part of the problem is, of course, that 'heartwarming" isn't my usual beat. Stuff like that probably happens at agencies, too. I do think that she hinted at stuff instead of putting it on the page for us though, but it wasn't a question of "suck". In fact, I liked it until about the last three grafs where she reached for my heartstring just a bit too hard, and that is a personal bias born of my many trust issues. But the editor, Sharon, explained it this way...they have X time and X money for every edition, and they have to factor in fundraising time and her health because she isEIC, right? So if something isn't everything we want, we'd better keep the space open for something that is. (I still feel bad. But I'm not her beta. It's not my problem. Some other anthology saw something in it I didn't though because it was published before us.)

Anyone wanna beta-read my book? Familiarity with/enjoyment of historical romance preferred, though not absolutely required, because part of what I'm trying to do here is guage whether or not I've hit my target market. It's roughly 110,000 words--at least, that's what I get when I split the difference between the page count estimate and the actual MS Word count, and it's a nice round number.

I'm mainly looking for general impressions, though I'll probably have a set of questions for after you read it (I don't want to send them before, because I don't want to prime you to look for problems that may not be there or that may be tiny and mild). And I'd like to get feedback by mid-December, just to stay more or less on the schedule I set for myself.

If interested, email my profile address.

My article in English Journal is finally published! Print version won't be delivered for another week or so when the magazines ship, but since many of you helped me (a lot) in my beta last year, I thought I'd post a link to my homepage where I put a link up to the pdf.

It's here: [link]

Thank you, everyone!

Congrats, Kristin! (And further reminder why I want you to write for me. :)

Oh, Kristin! I remember you posting an earlier version of that last year, and it still packs a powerful punch. Beautiful work, m'dear.

That's such a powerful piece, Kristin. Congratulations!