Usual ratio.

[mrissa]

I often say, "I believe 'win some, lose some' is the usual ratio, and that holds here." Well. Yep.

Win some: my contacts have arrived at the optometrist's! I get them in an hour. And then I get to stop feeling like a gawky, ugly 11-year-old. (This feeling doesn't set in until I've had to wear my glasses for more than a day straight, now that I have decent glasses. But it's been a week and a half of glasses. The blue and silver Anubis's Scale* necklace I got from porphyrin on Saturday is barely holding back the tide, here. I recognize that I do not actually appear to be a gawky, ugly 11-year-old. Sometimes the things that are all in our heads are the ones that matter.)

Lose some: book rejection today. Blerrrrrrg. Nobody likes book rejections. Book rejections suck a bazillion and one times more than short story rejections. (For me. Your mileage etc.) Book form rejections? And lo, the sucking is mighty.

This was the only one of my books sitting on the desk of an editor I haven't met in person. The World Builders. The one I wrote as a YA and then squinted at sideways and decided it was really children's, because I got ideas for YA SF novels, and they looked much older than this one. Anyway, I have done nearly no research on markets between picture book and YA lengths. I have no idea what to do with this one now. I guess if I'm going to go writing middle-grade children's books (which I am; Zodiac House is also one), I'd better poke around and figure out what I can do with them when they're written.

This makes it harder for me to keep ignoring the echoing silence through the rest of my submissions log, too. But I will try to behave, that is, not to whine and fuss. Very much. After right this very minute.

Sigh.

*It's got hearts and a single feather; what else weighs such things together?

Comments

[fiddledragon]

My cousin is looking to become a children's book publisher - she finished up her internship, and I should go find out what she's doing now - she could possible have an interest there, I know she's working on a small run of a book that my Aunt wrote.

*chuckle* and we have 2.5 avid readers that could probably test read for you over here ;)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I should actually keep that last bit in mind when I finish Zodiac House. I forget: are you on the crit-willing filter?

[fiddledragon]

can't remember if I am or not - possibly not since I don't have a huge amount of time to do anywhere near the amount of reading I *want* to do.

*laugh* I said 2.5, because Kritter and Bri are *voracious* readers and read well above their grade levels (5th and 3rd respectively)...Beena is getting there, but isn't *quite* there.

I did ask my aunt if there's information on submissions/editors from where K works that I could pass on to you - probably will hear back from her in a day or two.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, good deal. Thanks. The crit-willing filter doesn't commit you (or the girls!) to anything, so I'll just make sure you're on it, so you hear when I'm looking for beta readers.

[fiddledragon]

ah - here's the address to the place where my cousin works: www.candlewickpress.com

She's not involved in any incoming submissions, but my aunt suggests going through their website.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Looks like they're not taking unsolicited manuscripts. Neat place, though.

[fiddledragon]

poop - well, if what my aunt indicates is true, you may want to check back there every so often to see if they are accepting manuscripts.

[sraun]

Were you at Minicon this past Easter? Someone in your local circle should be able to put you in touch with Sharyn N, I would expect she might be able to give you some hints - assuming she's got the time.

But she seemed to be fen and editor - a nice combination.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

sdn already has more of my fiction on her (at least metaphorical) desk than any one human being should have to put up with, but I'm afraid she does YAs, not middle-grade books. (Actually I'm not afraid at all. I'm glad she does. I just don't know if she has an equivalent among childreny children's editors. Don't know that it's the same group of people at all, and don't know that there's a fannish editor among them. It's a good hope, though.)

[sraun]

I thought the chances of you having an existing connection to sdn were high - but I didn't want to admit to knowing her LJ handle if you didn't. ;-)

Because I'm paranoid - do I correctly interpret this to say, 'Oh, I hadn't thought of asking her if she knew someone else that I should submit to'?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It is true that I had not thought to ask; we are speaking similar dialects of Minnesotan.

You were not in my dream last night, but five of your clones were. I kept trying to explain to dd_b that I'd already met you at his birthday party, but he kept saying, no, this was your clone Steve, no, this was your clone Harold, etc. I have no explanation for this.

[sraun]

It is good to have my understanding confirmed - thanks!

{chuckle} about the dream!

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Oh, rats. I liked the World Builders.

Do you know about the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators? They have a website (http://www.scbwi.org), which would probably be where I would start looking for market info if I had a middle-grade novel to sell.

Hope you get some good news to enter in the submission log soon.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for liking The World Builders and also for the link. I don't see any market info on their page, though....

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Oh, blorrff.

[kaseido.livejournal.com]

The blue and silver Anubis's Scale* necklace

Oh, how wonderful! That's a brilliant design idea!

And much comiseration on the rejections....

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

Yuck on the rejection. Good luck with the next market, whatever it is.

[sraun]

This may count as a 'win some' - I just finished Prototype.

I have this habit of buying all the new short SF & fantasy fiction at www.fictionwise.com. Sometime in the past, they started carrying Prototype. So, on general principles, I picked it up. I have a lot of unread short fiction from fictionwise.com!

I was organizing some of the new stuff (I was a little behind), and spotted a directory with your name. "Huh?" I say to myself, "Don't I know that person?" Dig, dig. Yeah, I do. OK, take time out from organizing to go read a short story.

It was a lot of fun!

Now to go follow links...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it! Definitely a win some.