I’ve been slowly coming to the inevitable conclusion that I’m going to have to revise Pomegranate Seeds (again!) if I want it to sell.

Here are the cold, hard stats:

• 8 form rejections
• 1 closed query (no response after a follow up email and 5 months)
• 1 rejection with feedback that opening was too quiet
• 2 contests “wins” with ultimate rejections (one cited voice; the other said it was a little “flat”)
• 1 request for a full with a pass (too many fairy tale retellings on the market)
• 1 open request for a full
• 2 open queries
• 1 pending contest (PitchWars)

Counting the PitchWars agents who haven’t seen this yet, that’s about 20 agents.  Now, we’ve all heard the stories about writers who went through numerous rejections before hearing yes on the 21st, or 51st, or 99th query.  We’ve also heard the stories about writers who self published after being rejected by the publishing world and went on to sell over a million copies on Amazon.

This isn’t that book.

Kids, when I wrote this, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.  I’d written a handful of short stories in college, and a NaNo project the previous year (it’s since been locked in a drawer for its own protection).  Now that I’ve finished a draft of a novel that was plotted and outlined and beat-sheeted (hat tip to Authoress), I understand so much more about how a novel works.  Enough to know that while Pomegranate Seeds isn’t irreparably broken, it could definitely use an overhaul.

All of which is leading me to the point where I need to make a pretty difficult decision.  Do I put Pomegranate Seeds back in the drawer? Or do I take a deep breath, get out my notebook and pen, and begin to quietly murder my darling?