I’m going to guess that most authors have a few unsold manuscripts on their hard drives, under their beds, in their closets. I’m going to guess, too, that most authors don’t sell their first full length novel. Some will, but most won’t. I did sell my second, but there was a world of difference between the quality of that one and the one that had come before. That sale was to a small print publisher. It took me three years to make my second sale, that one to Harlequin, and during the interim I learned even more about craft. Since then, I’ve continued to sell on proposal, with many a blind option book tacked onto my contracts.
I have only the one full manuscript that never sold, but I do have several partials. Most I’ve let go. Some, I just can’t. They’re stuck in my head – and in my heart – and nothing will shake them. I love them and can’t let them go.
My experience with working over old ideas, however, is not particularly positive, yet neither has it been so negative that it’s turned me off doing so. I have a Harlequin Blaze release that was rejected by one editor, then given life by another eight years later. Admittedly, I’d never done enough work on that story in the first place, so when I resurrected it, the experience was incredibly painful. Thinking I knew it well, I failed to give myself enough time in my schedule to write it. That was a huge mistake. I turned in the manuscript knowing my hero was an ass. The first revision words out of my editor’s mouth were, “Your hero is an ass.” (Okay, maybe not verbatim, but it was the same sentiment.) I rewrote about half the book, a task that threw off my next contracted book for this same editor, but I had no choice. My hero was an ass.
The only other idea I’ve sold out of my story graveyard was one which had been rejected by every single title editor in the business on the query alone – this even though it won several RWA chapter contests. It was an action adventure romance, 
and in the early nineties, no one was publishing much in the way of action adventure romance. (Timing, timing, timing.) My rejections all said just that. We love this, but we have NO idea what to do with it. A dozen years later, I used two characters from that idea as the basis for my action adventure Smithson Group series from Kensington Brava, and eventually wrote the original for Brava, too. It wasn’t the best book I’ve ever written. It was too short. I wrote it during a horribly stressful time in my life. I couldn’t thread the subplot as skillfully as I wanted to, so at the last minute I yanked it. The book saw print, received decent reviews, generated appreciative reader feedback, and at least my hero wasn’t an ass. In fact, he’s still one of my favorite heroes ever.
Right now, I have a proposal being shopped that is the best thing I’ve ever written. Trust me. It is the BEST, and it’s something I started working on over ten years ago. Ten. That is a long LONG time. It went out originally to five editors, then four more, then another, and I’m waiting to hear on a recent additional query. I want to write this idea more than anything I’ve ever put together. I love these characters more than life itself. I can see them, hear them. No other set of characters has ever been so real to me. It’s like they’re people I truly know, not a figment of my imagination. They’re my friends.
What have my rejections said? (Some details redacted to protect the work.)
“Alison is a lovely writer and there were several nice elements here. However, in the final analysis, I am not sure that the premise here is strong enough to stand out on the crowded contemporary romance shelf. For this reason, I am afraid I must pass on this particular project.”
“Alison is obviously a seasoned professional but, with some reluctance, we are going to pass. Her writing was nice, and I like the character of [...] a great deal but we generally steer clear of stories with [...] plots. I did appreciate all the realistic detail about [...] though.”
“I loved the details of [...], and I think her premise is a good one–she manages to combine very different heroes with a variety of skills, yet still give them the bonds of brotherhood. That said, I don’t think this one is for me. Despite some strong moments, I didn’t quite fall in love with the writing, and ultimately don’t think I’m the best editorial champion for the series.”
“I’m actively looking for contemporary romance, particularly with this kind of feel, so I was really hoping to fall in love with it. Alas, I’m afraid I have to pass as I just didn’t find it compelling enough to pursue for our list. Too much of it felt like set up for the series, backstory and introducing characters, rather than a page-turning story where the reader meets the cast of characters along the way.”
From my agent on another: “She decided not to pursue it because she didn’t find it high concept enough. But she wants me to keep her in mind for anything else you work on because she thought your writing showed a lot of talent.”
One of the original editors to get this package still has it, as does an editor who requested it after a lunch pitch by my agent. Then there’s the query that’s still out there, so I haven’t yet given up hope. But I may have to. I want to sell this story / series. I want to write it more than that, but my financial situation isn’t going to allow me to spend the time unless I’m being paid to do so. I don’t want to let it go, but if it comes down to it, do I have a choice? How do you know when it’s time to tell a beloved project good-bye?
(Oh, yeah, the current WIP? It’s one more I’ve resurrected, but the last one worthy of my time and attention. *g*)
If You Love Somebody and Fly Little Wing photos by lepiaf.geo
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“How do you know when it’s time to tell a beloved project good-bye?”
Once I put together a proposal and start submitting, I give it six months to sell, then it goes into the filing cabinet and I move on. Even then I don’t say good-bye, more like au revoir. If I see a change coming in the market that might make editors more interested in it, I might pitch it again (that’s what happened with the Darkyn books, first pitched in ‘98, pitched again and sold in ‘04.) Since I’ve sold a lot of books out of that filing cabinet, I know better than to toss out anything I think is decent.
After reading Jenny Rappaport’s post on how long it’s taking for submissions to make the rounds, I think I might stretch that six months sub time out to a year now, too.
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It’s a tough one out there, though I hear every week of author friends selling. Some projects are just hard not to mourn!
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Oh,Lord. Sounds exactly like the slew of rejections I got for the women’s fic (which was to have been a Red Dress Ink) which was shopped around, and around, and around… All those “love the writing, but/not high concept enough/just didn’t fall in love with” comments. Sigh.
And, yeah, I still love this book. KNOW that many of my readers would “get” it just fine. So for now it’s lying dormant, until I decide what to do with it. But I can’t let it go. Like you, I know this is some of the best work I’ve ever done, and that one day it will find a home…or I’ll build one for it, maybe. We’ll see.
But I do have books written earlier I’ve allowed to die quiet, dignified deaths. One in particular, written early on — a Desire candidate that got sent to Temptation, which was a joke — I thought might work as a Special Edition, now that I wrote for the line and the word-count would work. Found a hard copy, re-read it, blushed with shame that no fewer than three editors had read the horrid thing. (And now realize how kind editors are, generally speaking.)
So, yeah, some hard to mourn, others…not so much.
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Karen – I definitely have some that I will never resurrect! It’s the ones that won’t go quietly into that good night that are the hardest to deal with!
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I have an old partial I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. The early books I sold needed extensive rewriting, and the experience was so painful I vowed to start from scratch if I ever had to do such a thing again.
The want to write vs. need to get paid is a tough thing. Although I think for both creative and career survival it’s ideal to always have a spec project in the works, something you write for love. It never hurts to have extra inventory, and you never know what writing that project might teach you.
Fingers crossed for your project!
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Charlene – I tried once to rewrite my first book, and no. Not gonna happen. I don’t have too many things that will have to remain buried, about four versions of one partial I could never get to work, a second partial that I like, but don’t love enough to do anything with, a full proposal I could probably submit, but then I don’t have a single idea that’s similar to make a career in that direction . . . I’m pretty much sticking to new stuff now except for these final two things I feel need their shot.
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At least the comments you got on your novel were generally positive!
Good article, too, on when to let a story go. I found it helpful. Thanks for sharing.
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Hi, Kenneth
I think they liked my writing more than my novel, unfortunately, though a couple did like certain elements. It’s hard not to let it be a downer when it’s the elements that make me love it so much, LOL!
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I really needed this pep talk today. I have a ms I’ve been working on for so long, I’m actually sick of it, but I just can’t seem to let it go. I need to let it go. I want to let it go. *sigh* So this was good for me to hear.
Thanks.
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First ones are hard. Just a couple of years ago I tried to do something with mine, but realized that it has to serve as an accomplishment and nothing else. It was the first book I finished. Beginning to end. And for anyone to do that is a lot. When it’s time, you’ll know!
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theo – I think when it’s time, you’ll know. When I pulled out my first ms to look at again, and played with the early chapters, I knew it wasn’t worth it. If I wanted to tell that story, I would have to start from scratch. Since the story wasn’t calling me, I knew it was time.
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I have a question: when you were working on a book (for one of the partials that you abandoned) how did you know when it was time to abandon it? I’m the kind of person who has a billion ideas, and they all feel like great ideas until I get about half way through. I finish as many as I abandon, but I feel like maybe I’m doing myself a disservice by not finishing them.
Great post!
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Shauna – I don’t invest a lot of time in a project that bores me or that I can see early on isn’t going anywhere. Like I said to theo, you kinda just know if it’s not going to work for you. Either you can’t get the plot to unravel naturally or you don’t have enough going on with the characters to make it worth spending all those pages with them. But if something interests me, I stick with it because I know something is there!
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This is a great post. I think most us just starting out find this comforting. I haven’t sold my first MS and my second isn’t finished editing and at times you wonder why write the second when the first hasn’t sold. This gives yet another boost to the sometimes demoralising process. I love to write and if I keep getting better at my craft I am sure eventually I will write the MS that sells. Thanks so much for sharing this experience with us.
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You’re welcome, jade. I don’t know any author who even after selling doesn’t have ideas shot down by their editors. It’s all part of the job! I would love to sell everything I come up with, but so much depends on the market, etc.
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Great post Alison. I have a couple that I don’t ever want to give up on. But one is coming near to expiring and its painful.
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Vivi – It IS painful!!!
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Excellent post, Alison. I’ll admit, I’m bad at letting partials and full manuscripts go. The only two I’ve ever completely let go are the first books I wrote. Actually, the second one I didn’t even TOTALLY let go. I kept the heroine and wrote her a different story with a different hero, different plot and different conflicts. Oh, and she kept her apartment, too.
That became my first published book.
I have a couple of partials and full manuscripts bouncing around that, when and if I get time, I always go back to and rework. The “getting time” is the kicker. Sometimes I get a chance to send the resurrected stories back into the void again, sometimes I don’t. But I believe they are worthy of publication, which is why I continue to try. I do try to backburner them. Keep working on new stuff, and only pull something old out maybe once a year. Otherwise, I lose the flow of new writing. Gotta keep that going.
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Cindy – That’s the smart way to do it. Keep writing new stuff, and work on the beloved projects as you have time.
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I needed read this, right this second. I’ve been holding on to this one book and I won’t let it die. It’s hard to come to grips that some books just won’t see the light of day. It might just be bad timing. Or, the book is truly a lesson learned and MOVE ON.
Sigh, but it’s hard.
Anyway, best of luck.
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I think a lot of it is timing. So much is dependent on the market.