Once upon a time, I was so desperate to have my manuscript accepted by an agent or publisher that I listened to any advice that came my way. Through all the suggestions to “write what you know” or “read everything you can get your hands on” or “edit and cut, then cut and edit,” one bit of advice always stuck with me.
“Don’t give up. You just haven’t put your story in front of the right set of eyes yet.”
To some writers, this makes the manuscript submission process seem as daunting as climbing Mt. Everest. Barefoot.
How many sets of eyes are out there, anyway? It seemed like every agent and publisher had already seen my work, and then rejected it. Sometimes twice. I mean, how can it be said that the right set of eyes hasn’t seen my manuscript when every set of eyes has read it?
Trust me on this. There are a LOT of agents and publishers out there, and I’d be willing to bet you haven’t sent your work to all of them.
I thought the same thing about a year ago. My manuscript for “Code Gray” had been rejected well over a hundred times, but people kept telling me to keep trying until the right set of eyes read it.
I decided to tweet about my book in a Twitter pitch party where editors asked for a particular kind of manuscript. But when the day came, I totally forgot about it until thirty minutes after it had ended. At the encouragement of my son, I looked at the messages, anyway, and I found one from an editor named Ashley Hammond of Pandamoon Publishing. She was looking for something that was almost exactly like my book.
I sent her a message and apologized for being late, and described my book to her. She answered back to send in my manuscript, and to make a long story even longer, I received a publishing contract about six months later.
Ashley was the right set of eyes. All I had to do was find her.
So keep at it. Keep submitting your work. You’ll get there once you find someone whose eyes light up when they read your manuscript.