Friday, January 29, 2016

"It's their loss", no, really it is

So, a few days ago, I received my first rejection email of 2016 - or as I prefer to call it my first 'it's their loss' email. (Only reaching that stage after sobbing quietly for a few hours.)

Yesterday I received a 'we'd like to see more' email, which, strangely enough made me feel worse than the first one. You see it was from a publisher. Again you'd think, 'Well, that's good, isn't it?' But I don't know; I am suspicious. And I became even more suspicious after I googled them.

On the original publishing website they did say that they may ask for a contribution towards publishing costs, which can be a sign of a vanity publisher but, on the other hand, is like going to a regular printer if you self-publish, but that unlike a vanity publisher they would only publish if they considered it of suitable quality.

The reviews I read however suggested that everything would be of suitable quality and that the financial contribution requested could be very high.

So, yes, my reaction was: the only people who consider my manuscript worthy of publication are scam artists. Hence my misery.

Anyway we're off to Surrey for the weekend so time with grandchildren will cheer me up. We're setting off this afternoon so I'll miss any more 'It's their loss' emails that arrive - I find Fridays to be a 'good' rejection receipt day. I am convinced agents come to the end of the week and just want to reduce their pile a bit so fire them off willy nilly. 

I hope my next post will be more cheerful: I'm not really as horrendously miserable and dreadful to be around as I may sound. At least I hope I'm not ...


P.S. Vanity publishers came into the news a few years ago because they were taking lots of money from people to publish their books. They played on people's vanity and desire to be published - much like self-publishing - but at a great cost - unlike self-publishing. I self-published This Time Next Year at no cost to myself, unless you count blood, sweat and tears.

4 comments:

mrsnesbitt said...

Good attitude Liz. Stuff em!

Leslie: said...

Someone reminded me today of the song "Let It Go!" I must learn the words so I can mumble them to myself - constantly!

Ole Phat Stu said...

Totally off topic, but I couldn't find your email :-(

Hi Liz,
Ole Phat Stu here (german blogger).
On 10/7, when returning from our Ireland motorcycle tour, Frank and I shall be staying at The Red Lion, Llangynidr, (01874-730223), which is only about 50 miles from Swansea.
We’ll get there about 18:00 hours. If you and Hubby would like to come up for dinner and or a drink, we could meet up there.
Let me know if you’d like to meet up 

Stu (mail@savory.de)

Liz Hinds said...

Easier to say than do though, Mrs N!

Me too, Leslie.