My agent just got the following response from Allen & Unwin
I read the sample chapter over lunch. It’s clear that Tahlia has a good handle on action and pace, and I’m tempted to ask for the whole manuscript. But as we’ve got a number of similar titles in the pipeline, I think it’s best at this stage for me to decline, as I don’t feel confident, in such a crowded fantasy market, that we could successfully publish this novel in addition to the others.
I’m sorry! I’m sure you will find a good home for it and wish you and Tahlia well.
That’s the nicest rejection I’ve ever had.
What do you think?
A rejection, yes, but so many of them are just form letters. If it were me? I’d frame this one. ))
Whatever you do, don’t give up.
Thanks Richard. I won’t give up, I have the tenacity of a goat. Baa
oh man – it’s nice and yet very frustrating, I’m sure. I hope you get a bit soon.
Thanks Mardel. Everyone’s wishes for me help.
Tahlia,
I think you are so close, you don’t even realize it. Don’t give it up just yet. It’s just around the corner. That’s why you can’t see it. But it’s there.
Gee, I hope you’re right. There’s 2 big publishers left and a smaller one we’re waiting on now.
Rejections are so weird. You want ones like this because they’re such a step up from a form rejection, yet I shrug off the form rejection because obviously there was no chemistry, but rejections like this hurt me awfully, while at the same time making me smile because they cared enough/thought enough to respond personally.
It’s like that boy (or girl) you talked to for three hours at the pub and laughed your butt off with, and then never saw again, but sometimes you find yourself thinking about them like ‘what if’? and you’ll never know the answer.
Yeah, it’s just a sooooo close. I get the feeling too that if she read it, she’d like it. Oh well, that’s the business.
Oh man, that’s so frustrating, I cannot imagine how you must be feeling but I agree with Richard, it is the kind of rejection that should be kept. I’m sure you will get it published in the end.
Yeah, it’s a weird feeling.