The first rejection comes almost three months after sending the completed manuscript of the Civil War novel to my agent. An editor for a major publishing house has been looking at it and has, alas, decided to pass.
This doesn't come as a surprise, as my agent and I both felt the book was too "literary" to be the sort of commercial blockbuster the house is really looking for. It's a business decision, of course. So, no hard feelings and Ann the agent will forge ahead, trying other editors whom she thinks will be more open to this book. The rejecting editor said nice things about "pitch-perfect and utterly authentic" language -- at the same time noting it may by daunting and a little "chewy" for a reader looking for an escape.
I'm not apologizing for this book. It's written the way it needed to be told and I have faith it will find a sympathetic publisher and, in time, an audience.
In time being the operative phrase. Things rarely happen quickly in publishing so now we can just settle in for a nice contemplative wait . . . Thus the pictures of the glaciers, courtesy of Patagonia's Glacier Park.
