You Gotta' Be Kidding Me

I've been holding off on this post, mainly because I am in the middle of sending my book proposal out, and I didn't want to jinx myself. Hah! I say to that now to that. Hah! I've had lots of interest in the proposal and even a few phone meetings with editors, who claim to be so "over the moon" about my book that they can't wait to get on the horn and discuss my vision with me and Secret Agent Man. Some have sent me books as gifts. Others have thanked me for "acting as a therapist" to their own inheritance issues. But has anyone come back with an offer? No. It seems not to matter that the book was excerpted in the New York Times, or that I have been interviewed about it for a forthcoming MSNBC.com article, or that it is a very timely topic. They simply act as if they are going to make an offer, but then they do not.
     The last editor was so positive and enthusiastic that s/he was going to go speak with one person and make a formal bid. Then what happened, you ask? Nothing. Literally. Never heard from again. Now that is just down right rude, is it not? If you don't care about the writer, at least get back to the nice agent, with whom you supposedly have a business relationship.
     I tell you, people, a terrible paralysis has felled the editorial world. It's worse than polio because there is no iron lung for these sorry bibliophiles, who don't know what to do. I am sad for them and for the changes in the book industry.
     Thing is: of they cannot pounce on something that is so very likely to sell, then indeed there really was no way in hell anyone was ever going to publish my literary novel. I'm sorry to break this news to myself (and to you) so harshly, but also I am relieved. I am coming to see that we are in a brave new world, mice, and that "reading" itself has become another animal all together, which means we are all in this together. The question is: What do any of us (publishers, editors, agents, writers) do now? Ideas welcome.