aqua fortis

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Partial Success...Or Potential For...Or Something

So, um. I have a story.

I got one of my novel proposal SASE's in the mail today, and, bracing myself for the bad news that inevitably arrives couched in an SASE, I opened it.

Please note that I sent my two novel proposals---SENT them--on Jan. 14. Boyds Mills Press promised a one-month reply. Bloomsbury said "Please allow 20 weeks" or some such horrible (but not unusual) time frame. In the SASE was a brief letter from Bloomsbury Children's Books, beginning "Dear Author." (This is usually not a good thing, in my experience.) But the letter went on to say:

"Thank you for sending a summary of your manuscript. The sample materials look intriguing, so please send the entire manuscript to my attention and we'll be glad to read it in full. We look forward to hearing from you."

Then it was hand-signed by the Editorial Assistant and included a little handwritten P.S. with a book she thought I might enjoy.

AAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!! I believe that this is very good news. The not-as-good news is, this means I have to edit the rest of the novel RIGHT NOW, as opposed to taking that 20 weeks they implied I would have. However, this is not-so-good-news I can live with.

3 comments:

writegrrrl said...

wow!!!! yay!! of course, it doesn't surprise me....

Anonymous said...

That is so AWESOME! Keep us posted. -beth

Sarah Stevenson said...

Thanks, guys!! It really helps to know I have so much support, especially when I'm stressing out (which is often). -S