#WVTP Update

So yesterday was the before mentioned #WVTP extravaganza that consumed my day between the hours of 11am and 5pm central time.

The day started out like any other day in the Nego household. I got up, I fed a kid, I got some coffee, and I opened my computer. In the hours before the moment of commencement, a strange calm came over me. And no, I didn't spike my coffee (though the thought did cross my mind). I spent some time revising my query letter and synopsis and was feeling good. The babe went down for her nap promptly at 10:30 and I was ready.

At 11am Twitter exploded in a # frenzy to post pitches from around the world. If you were on twitter at that time, I apologize because your stream probably felt a little spammed. In fact, the # was so popular it was actually trending enough to draw real spammers. (As a side note, we all felt that some of those spams would have made lovely pitches).

I pitched my book and waited...and waited...and waited.  When it sank far enough down the list to be completely invisible (about 30 minutes later) I decided to re-post. This is when I learned something new about Twitter. Apparently you can't tweet the same thing twice. I even tried to use buffer to get around this rule, but was thwarted in my evil plan. What! Now I had to tweak the pitch I'd worked tirelessly to perfect.

Well, as long as I had to change it I figured I might as well try out a few things. Below is the list of all the different pitches I tried.

1. 1. 16 y.o. mind reader, Stacie, could spy on her hot neighbor, but fending off total annihilation is probably a  better use of her time.
2. 16 y/o mind reader, Stacie, could spy on her hot neighbor, but fending off total annihilation is probably a better use of her time. 
3. New girl, Stacie, just inherited mind reading powers and a part in an ancient power struggle. She’d rather have a homecoming date.  
4. 16 year old, Stacie, just inherited mind reading powers and a part in an ancient power struggle. She’d rather have a homecoming date.
5. When you’re a teenaged mind reader in small town Ohio, the question isn’t if humans mutilated by evil desires will find you, but when.
6. Stacie's head is filled with dreams of Charles and the thoughts of half the town. She must filter them all out to listen to her heart.
7. 16 year old mind reader, Stacie, could spy on her hot neighbor, but fighting the forces of evil is probably a better use of her time.
8. Evil mutants are hot on her trail and the hottie next door is giving her the cold shoulder. Welcome to Loveland, Stacie Gunthar.
9. YA @johnmcusick Evil's hot on her trail and the hottie next door is giving her the cold shoulder. Welcome to Loveland, Stacie Gunthar.

To clarify John made a note that he was picking up several manuscripts that he didn't realize were YA. So just in case he somehow missed one of my previous tweets spelling out that my MC is 16, I thought I'd clarify the point in the last effort.

I hit the send button, closed my eyes and waited. Then at the eleventh hour when it seemed as if all hope was lost and I would leave the day without a single manuscript request, I opened my eyes to stare at my computer screen and...

Nothing.

That's right. Nothing. I'm not gonna lie. It hurt. I was disappointed and momentarily discouraged. It's times like these that I lean on Dolly Parton who said, "Find out who you are, and do it on purpose." Because, I'm a writer, and that's what I'm doing.  So yesterday wasn't my day to shine. It happens. Does that mean I'm ready to throw in the towel. Absolutely not. It means, yesterday wasn't my day. That's all.

Even though it's tempting, we can't hang our careers (or even a single manuscript) on the outcome of one attempt. So now what? Now I keep going. I found out today that I won a raffle for a query critique. So off it goes and hopefully I get some feedback to help make my query stand out when I start submissions.

Rejection and disappointment are an inevitable part of every writer's career. How we deal with that rejection plays a major role in our future success.