Riding the Yo-Yo

News on the novel.

Well, not really news. In fact, not really much of anything. It’s just that I WANT it to result in something, so I’m making it into a more significant event than it really is.

What am I “rambling” on about? Lantz (my literary agent) asked (email) if I had ever sent him any hard copies of my MS. I reminded him that way back last November he had told me NOT to send him any hard copies until he’d had a chance to review the latest, final, edited electronic version.

“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “Well, go ahead and send me 2-3 copies. As soon as I get them I’ll send them out to some publishers.”

(I don’t think he ever even looked at the electronic version. He tells me he has sent out electronic copies of my synopsis to publishers, but not the entire MS.)

Needless to say, I immediately produced for him FOUR copies and sent them by FedEx. Okay, I used FedEx ground since it’s much cheaper, but it's still FedEx! He hadn’t indicated any urgency, after all. If he’d told me an editor had asked for a copy I’d have sent it overnight!

The copies arrived yesterday, and he has told me he will send them out on Monday since he’s participating in a writers’ conference for the next 3 days. Let’s see... he asked for 2-3 copies and I sent him 4. He says he will send “them” out. Does that mean all 4? One or two? If I’d sent him ten, would he send them ALL out?

I asked him twice (two separate emails) to whom he planned to send them. He has ignored that question both times. Ah, the frustrations of communicating with Lantz!

I keep giving him the “benefit of the doubt” that he’s just really busy with, as he admits, too many clients. Further, based on my long association with him before he ever agreed to represent me, I have the distinct feeling that he doesn’t view me as one of his “leading” clients. Rather I think he’s agreed to try to sell my novel out of my persistence rather than any conviction that it’s really any good.

Yeah, I’m still plagued by self-doubts. Even with an ego as big as mine, I wonder sometimes if anybody’d really buy that book, enjoy it, tell their friends about it and so on. But then I remember the complete strangers who have read it and confessed to tears and enjoyment. So the yo-yo continues.


P. S. I must have touched a nerve with my Pet Peeve posting of yesterday. All comments and emails seem to share that one (not the eye-rolling—the cashiers’ method of handing back change and receipts). Maybe I’ll share some of my OTHER pet peeves. If my readers relate to them as well, I’ll tell Carol to stop rolling her eyes at me; I’m normal!