It’s already August folks so if you have comments or questions for our guest columnist now would be the time to ask.

There is only one thing worse than rejection: rejection by ommissiom. After my first two years of writing I got the hang of the whole initial query process. In fact even now I am impressed how quickly I can compile a list of agents and get a query out of the virtual door. But just as the worst lies we tell are those where we withhold key information the worst rejections are those where the key information – namely the agent no longer has any interest in our work – is withheld perhaps indefinitely.

Look, I am a patient man. I looked forward to Christmas like any other kid but it never drove me insane. Neither did the wait for my driver’s license, the vote, or legal drinking. Even when I query I can forget about the letters as soon as they are sent and throw myself back into an unfinished project. I get a form rejection and it rolls off my back like water off a baby hippo.

The problem comes when an agent asks to see more, or worse when half a dozen agents do. It’s like when you are interviewing for a job and you receive several callback interviews. You know you’ve risen above the riffraff and figure statistically chances are on your side. You begin to think of yourself as an employed person and imagine spending money and looking at relatives without that familiar mutual look of shame in the eyes of all involved.

Once again I am patient. It’s not the fact that it can take an agent 3-6 times as long (aka six months to a year) to get back to you after that initial positive contact. It’s that they might not get back to you at all. Unintuitively, the nicer an agent is the less likely they are to get back to you.

Case in point: I had an agent who sent me the most glowing letter I’ve ever received. I followed up with him like clockwork every three months to let him know what new developments there were in the news and strides I was making with my writing. Around the one year mark I couldn’t take it anymore and told him there was another (albeit far inferior) offer on the table. And I never heard from him again. Even though I know he had no intention of ever representing me I still in the back of my mind wonder what would have happened if I had never sent that email.

So let me bottom line it for you. Getting publishing is like surviving a nuclear attack on your city. Yay! You made it to the bunker. But now you’re probably going to die slowly of radiation poisoning or in the chaos of the ensuing anarchy. IF you die, it’s better to get incinerated at ground zero. But you know what? I’d still rather survive the initial explosion. So I keep writing. Hopefully you will too.