Agent replied to my proposal saying that it was unique, edgy, and wickedly funny…and arrived simultaneously in her in-box with the e-mail from the publisher saying “Wait, hold off on that proposal, we just bought something with dragons.”

She’s sending it anyway–hopefully it’s totally disimiliar. I offered to change the character’s name to Komodobreath and tell people he was a monitor lizard. It’s still possible, but presumably we’re working uphill…which is the second time in as many weeks I’ve had something foiled with “Liked it, but just bought something like it.”

Oh, well. This is certainly a better class of rejection than “Dear Sir or Madam: We are returning your manuscript because it sucks donkeys.” But I am mildly amused that I never considered such things before–I guess I sorta thought writing a good story was the end, not the beginning. More the fool I! So this is an education.

I dunno why I would have thought that, though–being a successful artist isn’t just doing a good painting. It’s another one of those “Had I thought about this for ten minutes, I would probably have realized…” moments.

I would be discouraged, and yet, it’s really not about me. These are people who have no percentage in padding my ego, and “We would probably buy this, except somebody else beat you there,” is vastly superior to “We wouldn’t touch this tripe with a ten foot pole.”

But hell, you gotta laugh.

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