Ah, rejection number one!

April 12, 2023

My first rejection for the year! An acquisitions editor has kindly replied, letting me know that the Girlie project is:

• well-written
• researched

but

• a tad lengthy
• unlikely to attract a profitable market

and

• the central character lacks agency ie is a victim to the whims of other characters
• the publisher can’t see who would really be the reading audience for the work

It’s really nice to have a comprehensive reply and I genuinely appreciate the effort the person who read the manuscript undertook because it has helped me shape how to make future approaches with this particular project. I will now prepare the manuscript for another publisher and send it away again.
 
Oh, and the criticisms?
 
I’m happy with the length – it’s necessary to tell the story. The tale covers nine years and currently runs to 125,000 words. I can try to edit further, and perhaps make adjustments to shorten the manuscript.
 
The central character is based on a real person so I am loathe to manipulate the character’s personality for the sake of creating false agency. It’s an historical setting where people like the central character generally did not have agency to be strong in the contemporary sense – strength for them was more in the form of resilience rather than heroic endeavour. I actually do agree with the editor’s criticism if measuring the work against contemporary presentations of similar characters. Perhaps I’m pitching it in the wrong publishing genre ie historical fiction.
 
And the reading market might be narrow, given the historical context and character’s arc. That’s the risk in telling this particular story, and why I always have this project reserved for a self-published option So, some editing and then onto the next potential publisher it will go.
 
In other developments, I started one of the two new projects and it has rapidly grown to 13,000 words, but it is exceedingly raw and I’m still ‘feeling’ out the style and characters. What I have also done is:

• sketched all the characters’ details including strengths, phobias, hopes and frustrations
• drafted the plot key events and timing
• made notes about the setting and functional details

The scenario is that a group of nine men, who successfully played competitive sport together thirty years ago, plan to reform the old team for a Masters Games event. To become reacquainted, they meet on a houseboat for the Easter long weekend. And the story unfolds as the men interact in a confined space, sharing stories, drinking, arguing etc. There is a planned twist or two, confrontations with personal issues and a look at what it means to be a ‘man’ (and not) in the contemporary world. Thirty years changes many people, and the twenty-something self is not necessarily what the fifty-something self becomes or grows from or relates to. And passion for a common thing is not necessarily what defines relationships. As you probably gather, this is an exploration of a major portion of my own life and experiences, but with a darker edge.
 
I hope you are all well out there.