One

One rejection so far.

Cons: obvious, plus I'm not going to get any sleep AT ALL after receiving a rejection. Might as well be clear about that, from the off.

Pros: The agent in question read the book, all of it, very quickly. She said some nice things and was quietly encouraging, even if she was essentially saying, 'it's not you, it's me'.

As a result, I spent the hours between 11.30pm and 3am formulating a plan, because I'm going to have to get used to the rejection while continuing to move forward. In the middle of the night, this does not feel like a sensible thing to be doing.