Bad Timing

So, here I am, typing my little fingers off, exhausting my brain with the unrelenting effort to figure out the next avenue--the next scene--and, what happens??

Yes, ladies and you other people: the greatest motivator of all...the publisher who had Fit For Love for THIRTEEN MONTHS finally got around to sending me a rejection letter.

Since I've never named the publisher, I feel safe about ranting a little.

Let's recap, shall we? In August of 2005, I sent three chapters and a synopsis. They apparently liked what they saw enough to request the rest of the manuscript, which I then busted my you-know-what to pare down to the appropriate wordcount, and submitted. Flash forward (ha) to thirteen months later, and yesterday (mailed in my original SASE with its OLD 37 cent stamp!) I received a one-page letter, 90% of which they spent apologizing for taking so long. Then in one sentence they summed up why they were passing: "we don't publish romantic suspense." Um, hello? Didn't they read the synopsis??

Oh, well. My feeling about rejection letters is that it's useless to parse them. They coulda meant "your writing SUX"...although they, in fact, said "your writing is great."

The bottom line is (and I know I'm not alone, here) when you get these things, you sorta have a hard time continuing to bust your you-know-what on the current project.

Which makes it a good thing I'm really writing it for my own enjoyment.

On the other hand, I read a post on the chick lit loop this morning from an author who said she used the "pantsing" method for ten years before giving it up and forcing herself to become a plotter. Thirty-two published books later, she still hates the process, but likes selling better than not selling.

And since I've posted here before that, despite my preference for pantsing, I believe the probability of writing a great book soars exponentially when you plot and plan...I'm probably wasting my time doing NaNo.

Oh, well. It's not like I had anything else to do...