Why I Hope the Editor Never Gets Back to Me (Unless it's a Yes)

So as you know, earlier this year an editor from an actual reputable publisher asked for a copy of my full. She seemed very excited about it, and she even emailed me to let me know she had received it.

Though I know that it was ridiculous to do so, I have been checking my email literally 4 times a day to see if she has responded to me again. It's been a little over 2 months at this point, and I was starting to become kind of depressed. Even though I know 2 months is no time at all in the publishing industry, to me it has felt like an eternity and with every day that passed it was just one more day that no answer was, in my mind, a "No" answer.

But then I decided to get off my ass and send a few more queries, beyond the ones that I sent at the beginning of August. And this time, in my query letter, I am able to include the line "In addition, I have submitted my full manuscript to XXX at XXX press, at her request."

I sent out a number of queries without that line, even after I had submitted my manuscript to the editor, because it didn't occur to me that it would be appropriate for me to mention someone else's interest in my letter to an agent. It's not like I have some close personal relationship with this editor, and I didn't want to appear to name drop or make myself seem all 5 minutes away from getting a deal or something. But I've been reading more and more agent blogs and the posts I saw about this very issue were along the lines of "For god's sake, if you have an editor interested in your work, let us know you idiot." So I began including that line in my queries.

The queries that I sent that did not have that line were universally form rejected, sometimes within minutes of sending. The queries that I have sent since including that line have resulted in one request for a partial and no rejections...still waiting for responses, which is way better than being form rejected within 15 minutes. Seriously, this happened.

So, I have come to the conclusion that having this tidbit of information in my query letter prevents people from form rejecting me the instant they read my query. Those form rejections may come later, but for now, the barbarians are being held at the gate by one simple sentence. So that is why I hope the editor takes all the time in the world reading my manuscript. Seriously. Read at your leisure. Either way, I win. You either like it and you want to buy it, or you don't like it and by the time you tell me that a year from now, I have an agent because you were at one time interested in my work. So take your time. Take all the time you need!!!!!