Apparently, sending queries for Nobody's Hero wasn't so futile at all. Houghton Mifflin has had the manuscript for about a month. I don't expect to hear from them for anywhere from 2 to 5 months since they have a 3-6 month reply window. Of course, truly, I don't expect to hear from them at all. I have great confidence in the publishing industry, ya know.
No, no, must not be bitter when things are going my way.
Things ARE going my way, it seems. Yesterday, I got the most incredible email from someone with scholastic.com in their email address (they didn't otherwise ID their imprint, but it later turned out to be Arthur Levine, which IIRC has already sent me a GFY/rejection). I nearly went through the roof. Here it is:
Dear Ms. Tyler,
Thank you for your query letter. If Nobody's Hero is not currently under consideration by another publisher, I invite you to send us the entire manuscript. Please remember that it can take up to six months for us to review and respond to submissions.
Best,
>name removed<
Editorial Assistant
Note the catch, though... "If Nobody's Hero is not currently under consideration by another publisher". So, of course, I panicked. That's relatively normal for me. After carefully considering the advice of some of my published author friends, I sent the following reply:
Dear >name removed<,
Nobody's Hero was requested by one other publisher, Houghton Mifflin.
However, they did not ask for an exclusive. If this is okay with you,
I'd be delighted to have Scholastic consider the manuscript too.
Sincerely,
Mary E Tyler
And Levine still wants to see it!!
Whooo hooo!
Okay, five minute celebration over. I need to get the packet out to Levine and then settle down to forget all about it. After all, it's going to be 6 months before I get an answer.
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