Two questions. I included two envelopes with a solicited manuscript - one to send when it arrived as acknowledgement of receipt, one to use for future communications. The publisher would have received in July 6th, so the acknowledgement should have gotten back to me by now, even if they mailed it on the tenth, two business days after receipt. Would a follow up phone call just to check that it was received be out of line, and doom me in the eyes of the editor as an overanxious nusiance?

Oh second question - is it OK to include sample chapters (in this case my intro, end notes , bibliography) in an on-line version of the book proposal? The endnotes and bibliograpy combined are probably about half the word total.

I think I may die worrying about every worst-case-scenario that could possibly happen between when I sent the ms and when I get notes like 8 weeks from now.

Share your worries - get reassured.

Greetings from Las Vegas, where it is 111 degrees, and hotter than Lucifer's jock itch.

Allyson, worst-case scenario is that they want another or some more edits. I grok the worrying, and I'm not making light of it - hell, I wrote every word thinking "please don't let this suck" because I was so uninvested - but the worst case scenario just isn't that bad. It would only mean more work, is all.

Anyone care to beta a flying anecdote I bashed out yesterday? It's only about a thousand words. I'm curious how it plays with a non-flying audience, but I'm not ready to put it online for all the world to read yet. Profile address is good.

Try not to expire from shock -- it's the new drabble topic, on time!

Challenge #116 (escape) is now closed.

Challenge #117 is on holiday. (Because I wish I were, damn it.)

I'll beta. Profile address good.

Just got a rejection from the larger of the two publishers - the one that wanted the entire manuscript. Because they wanted the manuscript based on my description I'm now wondering what was wrong with it. I shouldn't do that right? But when someone actually takes the trouble to look at the thing and does not like it, it worries me.

Teppy, I'll write one maybe when we get home from holiday, because I *am* on holiday.

Gar, a rejection doesn't necessarily mean they didn't like it. It's just as likely to mean that what they got doesn't fit what they were expecting, or that it simply doesn't match their line, or their direction, or any one of a number of other possible variables.

(As I stagger around Sin City, nifty agent has got first 13K words of N-SK, and will send off to Ruth Cavin after she reads. Yay?)

Yay, deb! NS-K is my favorite already, they can't help but love it, too.