So, missive number #166 where are we now, what’s todays update?

Well to paraphrase (for legal and copyright issues) the lyrical genius of Dan No Bacon and Chumbawamba, I’ve been knocked down, but I’m up again!

Down, but NOT out.

Rejections sting. 

They do, and it would be somewhat weird if they didn’t.

Agents get untold billions of submissions every second, for them It’s a struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff, a five or twenty second scan is all I’ll get – pass that cursory glance and my scribbles MAY be read, fail it, and they won’t.

Brutal it indeed is, but it’s the reality of life.

So, we must ask ourselves is it our pitch (the answer is yes by the way), and if so, what can we do to improve it?

Advice, like Splodgeness, abounds and is oft contradictory and counterintuitive.

For every armchair warrior who tells you to be open, chatty and your real self an equal number will tell you that under NO circumstances should you be anything other than cold and professional – just the facts ma’am, just the facts…

Neither are right and both are wrong.

The agent opening the email – I don’t know them, their profile doesn’t say if they drink tea, sip coffee or indeed if they laugh uncontrollably at those videos of goats licking electric fences – so I try to balance between the two almost contradictory diktats.  

So, I’ve licked my wounds (without the flexibility of a cat) and shook myself long and hard.

It’s NOT personal, it’s just the nature of the beast.

Do my best, and after that there is nothing more I can do.

The variables in play are too numerable for me to attempt to control any of them in a meaningful way – all I can do is my best.  Do what I think is the right thing at that specific moment in time – nothing more can be done.

So, that’s it.

Life is plodding on; the world is indeed turning without so much as pausing to acknowledge my pain…

Enjoy the ride – it’s the only show in town!

Stay safe, love those you can and remind them just how much you do.