I received my fourth rejection from a literary agent yesterday. She was actually quite encouraging, suggesting that A Gothic Symphony isn’t quite what she’s looking for at the moment, but that I should definitely keep trying.

I’m not expecting overnight success. Four rejections is nothing, and I’m not depressed by any means (yet). This was from before I revamped my query letter, too, and the hook and mini-synopsis weren’t (in my opinion) all that engaging.

The most encouraging part of this submission process is that I’m actually receiving responses. It means my approach is at least working to the point where the agents I’m querying are reading what I’m sending them. The worst is when you receive no response whatsoever, and you don’t know if it was that your work wasn’t good enough, or simply that you queried the wrong person or the wrong agency.

I’m going to continue trying, and reworking my query letter as necessary. I’m still in the early stages, and I still believe (naïvely?) that A Gothic Symphony is worth publishing.