Well, today was announcement day for the Pitch Wars competition. Sadly, I was not selected by any of the awesome mentors. But! I did get some fantastic feedback from two of the three mentors I submitted to, which I was totally not expecting. That kinda made my day, actually. Of course, like any author who has sent out a query and had it rejected, I wish the feedback could have been a little more specific and/or had some suggestions for ways to improve, but I know they were all very busy and swamped and I am super grateful for what I got. However, back to the drawing board go I.
I hadn’t really expected to be chosen. And I’ve spent the last week or so kicking myself for submitting so early because I took some advice I received during GUTGAA and used it to hopefully fix up my first page. Whether it would have made a difference or not, I’ll never know, of course, but I really regretted my itchy typing fingers.
Since I wasn’t selected, though, I planned to start querying agents again. But based on the feedback I got, I think I’m going to take the rest of the month to really work on my query letter and maybe even my first few pages (essentially all of Chapter 1) and see where I can tighten things up. And then next month? Who knows? Maybe things will start happening that are good. I mean, things have gotta start happening that are good, right?*
Yes, Kay, there is a Santa Claus, and he will bring you lots of love and smiles and hugs for Christmas. So just keep thinking positive.
Okay, well, now that I’ve got other voices popping in to say hello, it must be time for that nap I’ve been putting off all day. Lord knows I could use the sleep. Hope your Wednesday has been a great one!
*I’ve been having something of a rotten week this week, the highlight of which involved hitting a deer on my way home from work Monday night. Kristen Lamb’s post about handling rejection has a segment called “Rejection can be a sign of a pending promotion” and that portion of the post spoke to me more than any other at the time I read it (yesterday). I highly recommend checking out this post in addition to all her others.
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Related articles
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- After The Contest Is Over and Everyone Goes Home (descentintoslushland.wordpress.com)
- A Few Things I’ve Noticed From Pitch Wars (descentintoslushland.wordpress.com)
Suddenly they all died. The end. 
Thanks for the pingback!
And BOY do I hear you on the horrible week. For me it’s been illness, rejections (6 in 24 hours the day after my birthday) and a death in the family. There’ve also been some good signs, like an unexpected referral a friend crawled out of bed at 6 AM her time to give me and some personal responses from agents saying positive things…but still.
I HOPE that this dark phase heralds a new dawn for both of us. I wish you all the luck in polishing up your pages and query.
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You’re welcome! I enjoyed your post. I’m new to the contest circuit myself and, while I haven’t had much luck yet in terms of success, I’ve made wonderful friends and learned a lot, so…Hey, I’ve been more successful than I thought! 😀
I’m sorry you’ve shared in the horrible week-ness. Maybe it’s contagious? Some sort of bad luck virus? We had the stomach flu at our house in addition to everything else, but thank goodness it seems to be leaving us alone now. Hopefully everyone in your house is on the mend now as well, and I’m sorry for your loss. At least you have some good signs you can look to in moments of darkness!
I hope you’re right about a new dawn for both of us, and for anyone else out there who needs it. Thanks so much for stopping by!
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Maybe you should post your query letter for some suggestions. I’ve already found that begging doesn’t really have much effect. I’m trying to be more assertive these days.
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I’ve been considering doing something like that. Maybe once the holidays are over, I will.
I’m trying to be more assertive these days.
Assertiveness is not my strong suit. I suppose I should probably work on that, too. 😉
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I know a good new group where you might try.
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You’re a smoothie! A real smoothie! 😀
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My wife says much the same thing but for some reason she always sounds just a little sarcastic. Perhaps I’m just imagining it.
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I speak fluent sarcasm. And apparently I speak it more often than I realize, because my kids have begun to utilize it in their own speech. Badly, of course, but they are young. They are not yet skilled in the ways of the snark.
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Nurture over nature I say. You have plenty of time to instil in them the true fun of sarcasm and hyperbole.
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And instill I shall. Either that, or they’ll learn it through osmosis. You know, one of the two. 😀
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I think it seeped into my daughters blood before she was born. I can barely get a civil word out of her. None of that’s my fault of course.
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I take great comfort in the knowledge that someday my children will also be parents and then their childhood hijinks will come back to haunt them. Something tells me this thought is all I’ll have to hold onto through their teen years.
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Sometimes I feel like holding onto a hammer. Not for her but to beat myself senseless.
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