I explained the concept of "get to 'no'" to a disgruntled writer recently and they got their underoos in a twist. Raged that their stories deserved a better reading than one from that POV. My reminder that the people who shop for books in bookstores are often less generous in their reading than editors and agents was accepted with much pissing and moaning.

Maybe I'm a backwards writer, but I've found every rejection I've received to be useful. My writing gets better after each one. At the very least, they give me a good idea of which stories I should pay extra attention to and which I should let go of. If I get actual feedback instead of a form letter, I consider that story a winner in the works, and I celebrate the 'no'.

Not that I have a lot of time to write since Crossed Genres came to life. But still.

Works with me. When you said you "couldn't get your head around" something, it explained a lot. I simply hadn't made it clear that the people were expecting my character to show up. Now working in more detail about the premonitions some of the magical people have. Didn't think that would require a total rewrite.

However, I am well into the second book, my writing has gotten more bang-y, and now the first book seems sort of watery in some parts. So, yeah, going through it again.

Well, at our busiest we're not dealing with the volume you have. We still have the luxury of reading to the bottom of every first page and personalizing the rejections of those stories on our short list before the final cut. If current trends continue, however... We'll have to adjust.

There aren't enough agents, and even if there were, that wouldn't mean that the stories would fare any better on store shelves. This writer hasn't come to terms with the sales end of publishing, where store shelves are like Survivor islands. Those books are living the Darwinian dream out there in reality, but this writer apparently thinks that even the iffiest stories should be published and thrown to the wolves (i.e. readers).

I'm just not that cold-hearted.

And I have slush readers, but if they ever demonstrated a selection process like this writer suggests, I'd refuse their 'help'.

To the stories. Readers can ignore stories they don't like - they're great at that. And writers keep writing, regardless. But the stories? They're left to their own devices, and frankly? Most aren't strong enough to survive on their own. Better to keep them safely tucked away on their creators' hard drives where they are safe from the literary food chain. ;)

Fair enough. I meant that there aren't enough honest and skilled agents who fully realize that being a literary agent does not make them semi divine, but what I said was unclear.

I like your version better.