There is a great new system out there that a few publishers and agents are using. It’s called Submittable. It is awesome, because after you submit your novel, you can look up your query’s status at any time. Is it received? In progress? In editorial Review? Rejected?  All the info is there at your fingertips 24 hours a day.

You know what’s really bad about the system?

It is available 24 hours a day. For checking. Constantly.

I swear. It can be an addiction. I know I will be contacted if I get rejected or accepted, but I still check… just to make sure.

Yes, I am mildly stressed out. I’ve been querying for a long time, but up until recently, when I started to get good feedback, I’d been staying near the middle and bottom of my wish list. When the rejections came in, it was no big deal. I had plenty of more places to go. I revised some more, especially if I received feedback, and moved on to the next one.

No big deal right? That’s what this business is like.

Now that I’ve finally got the gummy bears to submit to places that I’ve targeted as “The ones I want”—Now I am starting to sweat.

Each day that passes, I think “Good. That means they are still reading it.” Of course, just because it changed from “Received” to “In Process” three days after I submitted, does not mean anyone has actually looked at it yet. But I keep telling myself they are.

You see, I’ve been rejected by one of these publishers TWICE. Each for novellas. Now they have something I’ve invested a significant amount of time on. The novellas were rejected on day 35 and 37 of the submission process. As of today, they have had my novel for 45 days.

That’s good, right?

No, guys. This does not get any easier.

I keep telling myself “They are still reading. This is good. If they didn’t like it, they would have rejected it already.”

Right? [smacks herself in the head]