I wonder what Amazon rankings really mean—in the book publishing industry at large. Do editor and publishers have time to check? They REALLY seem to fluctuate. I noticed today that the Mrs.Rowe book has been selling well—the count of books available is way down. That’s good news. The book has been out well over a year and for it to be selling so briskly, well, I am very proud of it. Last year, at this time it was much higher—I think at one point it was up to 2,000.
Along with the good comes the disappointing, of course, especially when you are book writer. One of my proposed projects just got another rejection. While rejection is just part of everything, and I usually handle it well, this time I am perplexed and angry. It’s probably not a good idea to go into the details on this blog, but I wonder what is really going on with this editor–who asked to see more of my writing. (More of the warm stuff, which is what I gave her.) But the rejection said she wanted something completely different—hard core, confessional stuff about my hard-scrabble life in Pa. (Not going to happen.) And the first proposal never even hinted at that. It’s really kind of offensive that she thinks that because I grew up in a mobile home and was poor that I should be writing that kind of book. Yes, all that is true, but the heart of this book is the goodness and warmth that was created in our home, in spite of all that. So, really she just did not get it.
But then again, now, I REALLY to to look at the proposal (AGAIN) to see if I was not doing my job well enough as the writer. If she did not get it, was it my fault or hers? It seems like there was some huge misunderstanding. So, I guess we just need to move on from here, find another publisher, find another way. Onward!
