Um - That Was Fast

3 days had passed since the BEA writer conference day. I wasn't expecting to hear back from anybody so soon. But the emails came on in.  Tina told me she received the pages and made another joke - still love this gal! Christine also let me know she had the MS. Unfortunately, I had a third email waiting. This one from Jennifer Weltz. 

Much Like Tina, Jennifer is someone you simply have to pitch if you have the chance! She was awesome. Seriously. Great big smile on her face, asked great questions, seemed completely into it. She'd requested the 1st 3 chapters and I sent them as soon as I got home. 

She let me know that she didn't connect with the material enough to go out and passionately represent the MS. It was a very nice letdown. But a letdown nonetheless. I sent her an email thanking her for getting back to me so speedily and  saying I was sorry she didn't connect with Kringle. I let her know how much fun I had pitching her, wished her well on her future projects, and said - who knows, maybe we'll run into each other again sometime.

She sent back - "you never know."

All right guys - I can't stress this enough. Agents are VERY busy people. You may think you're a busy person. You are not. At least not compared to an agent. So, when your ego is hurt from a rejection - understand it is not personal in ANY way. They have a never-ending stream of queries blasted at them, on top of a lot of angry, hostile, damn near harassing emails from disgruntled folks they've decided not to represent. Why not be the one who graciously accepts the rejection and sends a nice note back to them? Put a smile on their face. You may run into them again. Network! 

So there I was, 3 days out, and rejected already. I started thinking about what to do next. I had lots of opportunities in front of me, but no offer of representation. The inevitable question popped into my head.  Do I sit back and wait to hear from one of the 8 agents remaining on my "those who've daringly requested material from me" list?

The lazy part of me (which makes up roughly 78% of my body. The rest is water, entrails of mythological creatures, and an odd penchant for David Hasselhoff's music - presumably from my German genes.) wanted to decline any further workload devoted to finding an agent until I knew the Crazy 8 wanted nothing to do with me.  

The "entrails of mythological creatures" won the thrilling joust. I got off my lazy ass and researched another batch of poor, unsuspecting agents to torment with a newly written query letter. This one, I believed, had all the pizzaz, all the glitter, all the couture perfume necessary to  win over everybody and get even more requests!

I actually can't say whether it's worked or not. I have yet to receive any declines or requests. But an email was coming that gave a glimmer of hope.