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| Pteranodon ©2016 Adam Koford |
The term Friend Zone refers to a situation where one person feels more strongly about another person than the other person feels about him/her. Typically (according The Wikipedia) it's a guy who feels more strongly about a girl, while the girl sees the guy as "just a friend."
Sad to say, but The Book has been Friend Zoned.
My agent sent The Book out to three rounds of publishing house editors. I love The Book and would love to work with one of them to get it published. The editors, however, all said pretty much the same thing: they liked it, but they didn't love it.
And without loving a manuscript they're not going to fight to get the project added to an upcoming season's catalog and work to get it published.
I'd like to say that I'm okay with this. I'd like to say that in the five or six months since it became apparent The Book wasn't likely to go anywhere that I've come to terms with it and have moved on. I'd like to say that I'm well into revising the completed manuscript of another MG novel, full of optimism and enthusiasm.
I'd also like to say I won a bazillion dollars, quit my day job, and we're moving us over to the UK, but that ain't happening either.
It's clear to me that I'm not going to be shrugging off the disappointment of 5+ years worth of work going nowhere. I am, however, slowly dusting myself off and getting back to writing again. I sent my agent the text of a Picture Book the other week that she liked (more on that later) and I'm working out points in a few different MG book ideas.
Still, being Novel Friend Zoned sux.
-- Tom
