After being with my agent for four years --- has it really been that long? --- I have asked myself this question. Through her efforts, I was able to secure a ghost writing job that ended up as a hardcover and paperback printing with a major publisher, a great paycheck, some good press, a few awards and another paid memoir writing job. But even after all that, my fiction still didn't have a home. I wondered, was it my book? Or was it my agent?
After a lot of soul searching, one particularly nasty rejection and some feedback from a great writing group; many of whom are contributors here, I can honestly say, it was NOT my agent.
My agent has always believed in my work and while I'm going through major rewrites now, she waits patiently for the results. In fact, I'm almost happy she never found a publisher. The book that will find a home with a good publisher will be much better than the thing she's been trying to sell for four years. They say things happen for a reason. In this case, I believe that to be true.
Still, it’s hard not to ask the question when the rejections keep coming. The process is slow. The news of a yes or no seems to take an eternity. When that eternity ends with a negative, giving up or moving on to someone else seems like the answer. Read the link below to get Ally Peltier’s take on the question.
M. L. Doyle has served in the U.S. Army at home and abroad for more than two decades as both a soldier and civilian. Mary is the author of The Desert Goddess series, an urban fantasy romp consisting of The Bonding Spell and The Bonding Blade. She has also penned The Master Sergeant Harper mystery series which has earned numerous awards including an IPPY, a Lyra Award and the Carrie McCray Literary Award. Mary is the co-author of two memoirs; A Promise Fulfilled; the story of a Wife and Mother, Soldier and General Officer (Jan. 201) and the memoir, I’m Still Standing: From Captive U.S. Soldier to Free Citizen—My Journey Home (Touchstone, 2010), which was nominated for an NAACP Image award. Mary's work has been published by The Goodman Project, The War Horse, The WWrite Blog and The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an online magazine for which she serves as a fiction editor. A Minneapolis, Minnesota native, Mary current lives in Baltimore. You can reach her at her website at mldoyleauthor.com.
