Getting back into it

I've spent the last ten days preparing and sending off submissions to literary agents, hoping one of them will want to represent me. It's always difficult to get back into the writing process afterwards as I know I've just set myself up for rejection.

It's guaranteed that there will be rejection letters; they can't be avoided. It's not necessarily that the writing isn't up to scratch it's just that agents are busy people and receive over a hundred submissions each week. What you send in, the cover letter, synopsis and sample chapters; really has to resonate with them.

I've also managed to pick a genre that a lot of agents either don't represent or are not familiar enough with to feel able to sell it on to a publisher. Still, I can't help that; humour is definitely what I want to write.

The other problem is that the agent selected might not actually get to read what's been sent in. Many of the larger agencies employ readers to look at the submissions and your work will only get passed on if they see merit in it first.

I wrote to one particular agent recently because she represents my favourite writer of humorous fiction. I received a rejection letter back from Bob! I have no idea who he is. He's not even her assistant according to the website. Does Bob have a sense of humour? What's his genre preference? After all, if he's looking for the next Wolf Hall or Life of Pi, I doubt he's going to appreciate a book where one of the characters is overheard on a supermarket speaker system; pleasuring himself in the staff toilets.
We're not talking Booker Prize fiction here.

Oh well, all the submissions are in now so I'll just have to wait to hear back. I'd best get on with writing book 3.