Day 18: 20 Publishers in 30 Days

I only addressed 7 envelopes. These are the presses that will reply soonest or relate to my book topic the best.

I learned a bit more today. There are 2 kinds of query rejections: 1- form letter "doesn't meet our needs at this time" all-out rejections and 2- good rejection with reasons and encouragement or feedback.

I received the second kind. I went back through my conference notes and recalled some very valuable information: cross-pitching. Publishers may already have several books on a particular subject, and they're pitching these to vendors; the publisher's agents have maybe 2 minutes with that vendor; if they start pitching multiple books, the buyer may not go for it because they all start sounding the same. At the conference, the speakers specifically said, "Beware of cross-pitching!" Publishers do not want to become their own competition.

Then I learned that I need to send a thank-you card for this type of rejection since they took the time to offer encouragement. Whew!