The death of a novel

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I held the belief, a belief echoed by many, that hard work and persistence will get you published. With all the literary agents out there, the odds that not one of them takes your book to get published are slim to none.

Yet I defied those odds. Plowing through every possibly agent on Agent Query, I have somehow defied the odds of complete failiure, and found not a single agent is interested in representing my work. Not one

At this point I just have no confidence left. How is it possible to go through almost every agent and get turned down on every front?

I guess you had a belief that was not quite realistic.

I suppose you either keep working at it, or quit. They might not want to represent you and your book now, but what about in the future? What about after revisions, or tweaking your work for a market? What about self publishing/internet publishing? If you can make a following on line you might get an audience worth doing a run of books for.

Rejection really sucks, I'm sorry that you're not getting what you want.

I'm ahead of you a little bit - my book sold one copy. You can see it if you click the url on the bottom of this message. The book is free to WrongPlanet members.

Oh, and the one copy sold to a woman who wanted to give it to somebody she disapproves of.

<heavy sigh>

No, it's not made of hard work = success, any more than happiness itself does. But I honestly thought ...

Okay, I have an idea. November - as I'm sure you know - is Write a Novel in a Month. Would you care to try it out with me? I can really write but have no idea what to write about, but maybe if we laugh enough we'd actually accomplish something. And then our egos could go on, and on, and on ...

Forget an agent, self publish an E-book on Amazon. There is better software now and other sites on the net. Get your work out there.

Maybe you should publish it online...

A good friend of mine once told me: never give up.

At least you finished a novel.

I had several in the works.

One at 167 pages.

Then one at 70.

Then one at 28.

Then I started writing poetry.

Then I stopped writing completely.

So if nothing else, take heart in your novel and feel good about a completed piece of art. Share it with friends or as those above have suggested, publish it online.