So, today I heard back from HarperCollins. Unfortunately they did not send a letter saying 'OMG yes please send us everything you have ever written for we will pay you millions.'
I got my first rejection letter.
It's a nice one that says 'While an interesting idea...this is not suitable for our list.' It also never says rejected anywhere on it, just that they won't be able to offer to publish it. So that's nice.
I don't feel very sad about it, obviously it would have been nice for them to publish me, but I figure I'll get a few rejections before I get an acceptance. The temptation now is of course to rewrite frantically, but I'm not going to give in to that just yet. I'm going to submit Kiki to a few more publishers and try my luck.
I wonder what I should do with my rejection letter? I kind of want to frame it. I think I'll just put it away somewhere. I feel pleased that they read it anyway, or at least, read the summary. They got back to me nice and fast too, (within a month) so that's all good.
So, I feel a little bit more like a 'proper' author now that I've been officially rejected. I like to think about how J.K. Rowling got twelve different rejection letters before someone took up Harry Potter, it makes me feel warm inside.
PoF: OMG it's freezing.
CO: OMG it's freezing.