A Good Reject Letter

I know, I know. It sounds like an oxymoron.  Usually, reject letters are nothing more than “doesn’t fit our needs, good luck.” Or you get the dreaded form letter with the relevant box checked off, with or without a good luck wish.

When I received my reject letter from Red Dress Ink, I was pleasantly surprised. This letter had been given careful consideration before it was written. With the comments, it was evident that my query had been read thoroughly before a decision was made.

“…captures many of the key ingredients for chick-lit…” See what I mean? Good… “plot goes awry and weakens…” not so good. Alhough, that wasn’t really what I wanted to hear, I know exactly why my query was rejected. It gives me something to build on.

Like I said, A Good Reject Letter.

Sarah’s Gift is on her way

Well, she should be there. I e-mailed my query letter, full synopsis and first three chapters off to Mills and Boon Thursday evening. All the formating was changed, the spelling checked to make sure it was UK English and I sent her off.

Yesterday was the August Bank Holiday in the UK – everywhere but Scotland – so between that and the recent clip on BBC News (quite likely the telly as well as the website), they are likely inundated with queries.

So in the meantime, I’ll sit back and wait. Who knows this might be the one.

BBC news video

Yesterday, while perusing the BBC news website (as I always do), on the main UK page, I spotted a video clip on How to Write a Mills and Boon. These folks are the UK version of Harlequin Romance. So, I watched it before I made supper last night and came away with the name of the editor and what they want you to send in when you query – query letter, synopsis and first three chapters. She also went on to say that they read everything they receive and are more than willing to work with aspiring authors to make their work publishable.

This morning, I checked out the Mills and Boon website and can either send my Sarah’s Gift query to them via snail mail or e-mail. The only thing I have to do is change a bit of my formatting – the double quotes need to be changed to singles. Not a big deal with ‘find and replace’ as long as I don’t hit the dreaded replace all. It’s much better, even though it takes longer, to replace them one at a time to ensure that something doesn’t get changed accidentally.

Here’s hoping that before the end of the weekend, Sarah’s Gift will be winging her way to the UK – whatever the method of mail, I decide to use.

After all, Sarah’s Gift takes place in the UK, why not send her to a publisher over there? Sounds logical to me.