I Am Grinning From Ear To Ear

I wasn't sure I had anything to say today because I found something to say in NLM2 so I was going to get right to that after making dog biscuits etc etc.

But this email arrived in my mailbox and I'm copy and pasting it for you to enjoy.  I'm not hiding her identity.  They're proud of themselves.  They're the elites.  So why hide.

Last year I queried this agent re: NLM.  So here we are 5 months later.  I'll give you her note first and then my reply.  That's a good way to do it.

Her first

Dear Barb,  

Thank you for getting in touch regarding your book NOT LOW MAINTENANCE. I'm sorry to say that I'm unable to request more material at this time. I should let you know that a pass isn’t a reflection on your writing. I can never be quite sure what will catch my eye, which is why I look at each and every query I receive, but in the end, there’s no telling what manuscripts and proposal will resonate with me and what I might let slip away.

However, every literary agency prefers different styles and genres and your work may be a great success with another agency. I wish you the best of luck with the manuscript and thanks so much for thinking of me!

Best regards,
Joy

Joy Azmitia | Russell & Volkening | Literary Agents

50 West 29th Street #7E | New York, NY | 10001 | Tel - 212.684.6050 | Fax - 212.889.3026

My reply

On 5/17/2011 2:13 PM, Joy Azmitia wrote:

Dear Barb,  

Thank you for getting in touch regarding your book NOT LOW MAINTENANCE. I'm sorry to say that I'm unable to request more material at this time. I should let you know that a pass isn’t a reflection on your writing.

I know!  It's sold over 7000 copies in the last 6 weeks at Amazon Kindle.  It's been #2 behind Michael Connelly in Legal Thrillers for the past 2 months.   I love that!  In another list, I'm #3 behind Michael Connelly and John Grisham.  Me with my self-edited book with the homemade cover that no one in New York was the least bit interested in.  There I am.  I imagine them going "Who's that?!"  So I'm really not interested in legacy publishing anymore which is good because it's not interested in me.  You can probably understand that dynamic.

Thanks for getting back to me, though.

Have a good day.

Barb Morgenroth

 

 

I do want to say something about the potential for this reply being perceived as mean.  I have discussed situations such as this, altho not this specific one, with my rabbi.  Anything that's important I discuss with him.  This is true.  Sometimes you do people a disservice by not confronting them with the truth, or reality.  I wasn't mean to Joy, she was quite nice to me, wasn't she, provided that wasn't a form letter where she typed in my name and the title, which I suspect it was because I'm just a worthless writer after all.  And she's in a difficult position because we here know legacy publishing is dying.  So she's in a dying industry, although she doesn't know it consciously yet.  I'm sorry for her.  I was in a dying industry, too.  Legacy publishing.  It was freaking killing me.  

 

This blather about someone else maybe possibly liking my work after it took her 5 months to get back to me, I should invest/waste still more time to be rejected by these people.  It's cuckoo. 

 

I've got real work to do, real books to write and sell, I don't have that much time for their futile games.  They jerk writers around as if our lives don't matter.   

To quote Charlie Sheen "Winning!"

LOL