First rejection…

…cuts the deepest, I hope. After only two weeks out there I haven’t had one yet, or at least I haven’t been told about it by my agents, PK.

The other night though I got an email from PK at 11.55pm on my way to bed (bloody blinking Blackberry.) They have distributed my MS to just five editors for consideration. The editors in question are trusted by PK and one is a close personal friend.

The email was sent from my agent’s iPhone and contained brief comments from this editor/friend on some issues throughout the ms and especially the opening chapter.

Now on the surface the comments could be considered innocuous, if it wasn’t your work that they were talking about, but at almost midnight with no chance to have a clarifying discussion, they kept me tossing and turning for the night. I kept wondering how I could make the opening better and re-writing it in my head, or should I completely re-write large sections of the whole ms?

A further 36 hours passed before I could get my agent on the phone, as she was out of the country (although she did respond to my neurotic email, to say not to worry about it.)

When I finally got to talk to PK last night, it turned out that the discussion with the Editor was in reality very positive and their input was more about advising minor ways to improve the MS; rather than the cutting it to pieces, which I’d convinced myself of. 

As well as that, PK pointed out, the editor/friend actually read the ms all the way through to the end, which they wouldn’t have done if they thought it was rubbish; even for a friend. This message somehow got lost while PK was trying to be brief with the typing into a phone.

We’ve agreed now, for the good of our relationship, that fewer iPhone emails should be sent in future and never at Midnight.

So my first rejection is still not here and I’ve gone through some early phantom pains already, so now I’m thinking how bad could the real thing be?

... I’ll let you know


Current Listening: Villagers: Becoming a Jackal