Not on a card (I'd had one of those before), but on their website listing the books that they are still considering, with a note that indicated that if you hadn't had a card for your book, it must have been lost in the initial cut when no cards were being sent out.
I can't easily articulate how much that particular line hurt, especially when the previous updates had said that everyone who hadn't received a card or notification was definitely in second reading, and then in third and so on.
Interestingly enough, I was at the London book fair yesterday, and I went to the Hachette stand (Gollancz owners) and asked if there was any news, said I was willing to wait, did wait, and was told no one was available.
Today the confirmation comes out...
I'd like to think that the appearance of someone asking at the stand prompted them to actually tell people what the score was, but I'll never know on that score, I said yesterday that I'd have been happier finding out yesterday in person rather than two months later on a card, today, I'm at least released from the wait, and my spirits are lighter as a result.
It's the waiting that kills us, not the refusal...
Understand me when I say that in my heart (as in the heart of all writers), I didn't believe I'd get through, but there's still the gleam of hope within, and to be told that you could have been getting on with things rather than hoping that things could be on the way, well, it's a sharp taste of life.
I'm not discouraged, I still write every day, and now I can submit the books to others, because while I was thinking there was a chance gollancz would want it, I didn't, because the last thing a large publisher wants to hear is that you sold it to someone else while they were looking through it.
So two of the books that I'm most proud of stayed sealed for fourteen months...
And that's down to me and I know it...
No more...
Be aware all agents, there are submissions coming your way now, and if you want them, don't wait, because you're not the only one's who've got them now...
