My first rejection is in the bag!
Actually, my first two.
Jennie made me promise to screen record opening my first response from an agent. So this episode starts with me (actually) opening and reading my first rejection and Jennie’s response to it.
The theme of today’s episode is don’t take it personally. It’s easy (very easy, because we are storytellers at heart!) to make up all sorts of stories about what is (and isn’t) happening to your email queries that are out in the world. I was convinced—totally and utterly convinced—that my query was being passed around one of the agencies. Why did I think this? Because I could see from the read receipts that it had been opened a grand total of 17 times in a two-week period.
I saw the open number climb and thought, great! There’s some action on my query!
But Jennie likes to inject some reality into my fantasy. And here’s the truth: we don’t know. We don’t know who is opening the emails or why. It could be a slush pile reader. It could be the agent. The agent could be passing it around. OR it could be an automation!
Send it and forget it is a difficult strategy. After all, I am hopeful! I am optimistic! Plus, it’s kinda fun checking email. It’s certainly replaced checking social media, which is a nice change of pace.
What does Jennie suggest doing while you wait on your query responses? Keep writing, of course!