The Wait

Of all the things that suck about being a writer (and believe me, there are many) I think what I hate most is waiting for a rejection letter. It's so nerve-racking that I tend to get seriously anxious about it. Overeating and everything. Okay, I always overeat but, more than usual!

Notice I said waiting for a rejection letter and not waiting for a letter that asks for your completed manuscript. Cause I've never received one of those from a literary agent. For those of you who don't know, I've only ever published through a small online publishing house.

But this time, for my "big, epic" novel that I've been working on for over six years now, I want to go through a big publishing house. So, it's search for an agent time! Yay! I seriously suck at self-promotion so my query letters always get rejected without a second glance. I'm just not good at summarizing. I don't know how to make my letter grab their attention without throwing my hands in the air and yelling "Hey! Look at me! My story is awesome-sauce!"

The wait though. Oh geez, it sucks. And worse is when you don't even get a response. Some agencies actually post on their site that they won't give a response if they aren't interested. Okay, I get that, you guys are busy. But those that say "Will respond in 4 to 6 weeks" and then you hear nothing back? Not cool. Especially when you query them again, a different agent of the same company even, because you think maybe it somehow got lost in the mail or went to their spam folder and you STILL never hear a word back. Not a damn peep. 
That's just not cool.

I'm not naming names but since 2008 I have queried multiple agencies on different works and have had ten "no responses". That's how I label them in my query notes. I guess that may not seem like a lot but at that time I would never query multiple agencies simultaneously so that was a long time of waiting and waiting before finally just moving on. Just thinking about all that wasted time makes me wanna go eat some ice cream.

I've queried two separate agencies recently; one in July and one a few days ago. I'm really hoping that I hear something back from at least one of them in the next two months. Meanwhile, I try to keep myself busy with kids, reading, TV, chores, other writing, gaming, etc. so I don't wring my hands. 
But checking my email everyday is awful.