I learned this from the New York Pitch Conference
On the way back to Pittsburgh, I thought about Berkeley editor Dana Isaacson’s comments to me – and to several others, I learned. He said,
a) Ditch the title.
b) Set the novel in the present,
c) Use one person’s point of view instead of an omniscient narrator.
In other words: rewrite the whole book.
Or …. and this was my lightening bolt: write a new novel.
So that’s what I’ll do. There’s nothing to stop me. I can send out queries to agents about the novel as it stands while I write the new one, probably in 6 months, exactly as Dana suggested. I know the result will be more commercial.
The twins have nothing on me! This is MY challenge!
longdistancewriter 
You sound like a woman on fire! Tenacious! I liked your concept, and you know what? All these editors know of your hundreds of hours of work comes down to a 5 minute pitch. As Susan said, just because he’s some big time editor doesn’t mean he’s right. What he doesn’t like, someone else may love! Keep at it, and send out queries to agents as it stands (like you say) and see where it goes. So glad I got to meet you. And, I do believe that I will see your story on a bookstore shelf some day!