Rejection and submission

Asimov's rejected Killing Time I thought it was a long shot given the length. I'm resubmiting KT to Damnation Books. If that doesn't pan out, I think I'm going to try selling it as an e-book.

No joy from F&SF

but a fast response, which is nice. This weekend I'll try to get the manuscript out to Asimov's.

In the Mail

Killing Time went in the mail this afternoon, to F&SF. They say about an 8-week response time, so I should hear from them by mid-September or so.

Queries

So I've written query letters to four agents that Steve recommended. They'll go out in Monday's mail. If one of them bites, the next step would probably be to send sample chapters, and eventually the whole manuscript.

It'll take months, especially with the holidays coming up. That's OK. I seem to have a lot of fish to fry in the poetry world right now.

Next...

So, no joy from the agent I sent Drumheart to: she says she liked the writing, the characters, and the concept, but didn't think there was enough dramatic tension. Said she would be willing to read it again if I rewrote it, but it didn't amount to "change this and this, and I'll back it".

My choices now are: rewrite and resend to her, look for another venue, or..? Steve suggested possibly writing the second book, shopping it around, and then seeing if there would be interest in a prequel.

Right now I think I'm going to do nothing for a while: sit on it, see how I feel after the first of the year. Partly because I'm pursuing a whole bunch of new stuff on the poetry side and I only have so much attention to spare. Partly because I know it'll be easier for me to look at starting a big project once the year turns. (Why in the world did they pick November as NaNoWriMo? Looking back, I don't know how the heck I ever made it through the month.)

Watch this space.

Another step...

XXX (I'm still withholding details) has asked to see the rest of the manuscript. We'll be printing and sending over the weekend.

Officially an MS

So I spent all day yesterday doing a final line edit, spellchecking, and rendering the MS into the format Steve P. gave me. Printed the first three chapters, a plot summary of the rest, and a cover letter, which will be shipped off tomorrow to XXX (I don't want to disclose anything until I hear back one way or another).

Now the waiting, rejection, resubmission, etc etc etc... Luckily I've been through all this with poetry already. The difference is mostly a matter of scale. (Case in point: the poem that recently got accepted in The Lyric went out last July. That's 9 months ago.)

I'll track events associated with the publication process here, but it's not gonna be anything like daily updates...