Somewhere earlier in my blogging career, I excitedly mentioned that an editor at Tricycle Press had taken one of my picture book manuscripts to an editorial meeting, and expressed interest and enthusiasm for the story. She asked for revisions which I then submitted to her. She then said she'd get back to me after meeting her deadlines. That was October of 2007. I have not heard from her, or anyone else at Tricycle Press since then. My e-mails, to which this editor responded fairly quickly in the beginning of our correspondence, have gone unanswered and there has been no response to my follow-up letter of enquiry regarding the status of my manuscript. The latter, it seems, has been sucked into publishing's Black Hole.
This is the maddeningly frustrating thing about navigating the publishing world, especially without an agent. Actually, this is the first time this has happened to me when an editor initiated communication then dropped off the face of the earth. Usually, I get a yay or nay, but total avoidance?
So, it's back to the drawing board -- agonizing research on which publishing houses I should submit to, plus a couple of agents (why not? I've decided that there are definite advantages to having one). A friend of mine attended a writing conference, where one of the keynote speakers mentioned that she had received 150 rejection letters on one manuscript. Depending on whether you tend to see the glass as half full or half empty, that can be completely disheartening or entirely uplifting. In either case, Tricycle Press makes it the 4th or 5th rejection for this manuscript, so I have 145 to go before I should label this manuscript a lost cause and abandon it.
So, my writer friends, keep writing, keep submitting, and May the Muse Be with You.
