June 2009
11 posts
This how I expected literary agents to be:
http://www.felicitybryan.com/index.htm
I like this website- if I could hand out an award I would
Decisions
It is crazy how the new week rolls round and I am back at my desk with a hangover, trying to draw up my battle plan for the week ahead. Which to be fair is quite easy, back on the treadmill of research, letter writing and posting. This week if all goes to plan I will move onto the ‘c’ section of the agents list- gripping.
However, while all this is going on, I have still been working hard on my...
It wasn’t really until I saw a publishing agent being interviewed on BBC this morning about being recently unemployed (a felt a tiny twinge of malicious glee- I am sure this doesn’t really make me an evil person) that I considered the impact the recession might be having on publishers. I did a little digging and found well yes, unsurprisingly, it has been having the effect that it would do on any...
Following on from yesterday’s little rant and about the inflexible and old fashioned publishing world, here is a little pertinent update. The last two agents I submitted to (Jenny Brown Associates/ Brandon and Associates) both have new policies (new for 2009!) preferring to receive submissions by email. Is this just good fortune or indicative of a gradual culture change?
I prefer sending...
Summary- for those it may concern
Aitken Alexander- wrote to April 09 - Reject
Ampersand- Email June 09- Reject
Author Literary Agents- Wrote 6 June 09- Awaiting
Darley Anderson- Wrote to April 09- Reject
Diane Banks- Email May 09- Reject
LBA- Wrote to March 09- Reject
Michael Berenti- Wrote to June 09- Awaiting
Brandon and Associates- Email 16 June 09- Awaiting
Jenny Brown Associates- Will send to day
Another rejection popped into my inbox this morning. Aim to send two more out today- the law of averages will prevail!
Thank you for sending us this material, which we have now considered. Unfortunately the sheer volume of submissions we receive means we have to make summary judgements, and I regret to say that we don’t think it is suitable for us.
Apologies for this brief and impersonal...
If you are following this blog and want something else to read check this out- very funny:
http://steadybird.blogspot.com/
Sorry for the recent hiatus. The trouble writing a blog about trying to get published is that most of the time you are just waiting around for a response, holding onto a vague hope. When the rejection slip does come there are no pointers as to whether it was actually read or if you are just wasting your time, if you are the literary equivalent of a delusional X factor reject.
I am not sure if...
…busting makes me feel good
Worn down by the depressing analysis on newsnight, I was flicking through the channels wanting to find something to cheer me up, and I alighted on Ghostbusters- possibly the best film ever made.
Maybe writers are missing a trick here- it must be the greatest achievement to make something that brings such joy to the world…
Been having a rather unfocused these past few weeks. I blame the sun- no wonder the Russians were so great at writing, no distractions! Have decided to have a renewed push at the publishers. After starting off by pledging only to send my work to one or two publishers at a time, I have now decided to send them off more regularly. This week has been a regular Blitzkreig with 3 in the post already...
May 2009
35 posts
This blog has meandered a bit from its stated intent which was to follow me getting (or trying to get) published. Yes I know, will concentrate on this over the weekend.
Will not just read the great gatsby, it is too enjoyable. I am almost overcome and pained at how good it is… cursing all those times I talked myself out of buying it in waterstones…
…and if its any concern, I...
I started reading The Great Gatsby this morning, in the hope that it would cheer me up after last night’s footballing events. It didn’t- for the sole reason that after weeks of struggling, trying to find the correct voice for my first person narrator, Gatsby is an absolutely first class masterclass in that style. Why it is not even a masterclass, since I have no idea how you could even start to...
those last few quotes were from George Orwell. An undisputed master for me, for the sole reason he mixed together 2 things that really shouldn’t work- cliche genres and big ideas and they work well, superbly well.
1984 (or nineteen eighty four- if you want to really picky) did what I really wanted to do with Abstractions, create a fast paced thriller with meaning. Saying he did it, well he...
Prolonged, indiscriminate reviewing of books involves constantly
inventing reactions towards books about which one has no spontaneous
feelings whatever.
1946, ‘Confessions of A Book Reviewer’
To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.
1946, ‘In Front of Your Nose’
All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of
their motives lies a...
Hard to find where I left off since my dashboard is floodied with a multitude of other posts- I am amazed (in a good way) that people find so much to talk about.
Another rejection, bringing the scores to 3-0 to the agents. At least I am still on the ‘A’s which is one shining light. Like with anything, it can be easy to leave it when things dont go your way straight away, like when...
Not much has been happening on the agent front, am now in the limbo waiting for an answer.
Dipped into the ‘proper’ version the other night, and actually began to read it and feel satsified. Can still only manage a few sentences at the time though. Before the fear that a rogue error will derail my contenment.
Also making progress on my new novel, tentatively entitled Zeppelin. Have...
Yesterday I had quite a fraught hour and a half at Blackwell’s on Charing Cross Road, using their new book printing machine. I read about this is the papers- not only can you print off from a wide range of obscure titles but you can also print off your own work.
As someone who has finished a novel and is currently trying to find a voice and get in the swing of the next one, it can be quite...
what’s in a name?
As with many things Shakespeare hit the nail on the head with this question. If you accept that agents/ publishers in general will no more than glance at your letter unless something grabs them, the title of your novel will play an important role in any chance you have to get published.
Mine is currently Abstractions of Feeling- it comes from a character’s comment...
Following on from ishiguro love fest yesterday, I’m just going to comment on one more thing he said. Asked what advice he had for the inspiring writer, he made the distinction that too many people these days were enamored with the idea of being a ‘writer’ rather that someone who ‘writes’
I suppose in a way being a ‘writer’ has less appeal than an actress...
Went to see kazuo ishiguro last night at the southbank centre. As with most authors, I havent read as much as him as I would have liked, but his reading from his new book nocturnes sound amazing. I have always been interested in the connection between literature and music, specifically lyrics. Sometimes I am left awestrung by how clear and precise lyricists can get their images to be. One of my...
I am just working on my synopsis. Currently its my fourth submission and my fourth draft! My first was pretty pedestrian just a page explaining all the convolutions of the plot. Perhaps naively I thought that any agents would want to know the whole plot of the book. And maybe they do, but it is hard to make that snappy, especially since I like to think this novel has some unexpected twists which...
The Writers and Artists Yearbook is a hugely useful guide and a perfect start for anyone trying to get published. Yes all the info is probably available free on the internet but who wants to start trawling through all that shit!
I made the decision early on (after reading the book’s two articles on the subject) to start sending my work to agents. You can send your beloved tome straight to...
Caught the tail end of the Da Vinci Code last night. Trashy film to go with the trashy book- but you have to admire Dan Brown for managing to write a novel THAT huge. He, alongside JK Rowling, are the only real writing superstars- and millionaires- that exist at the moment. Sometimes I do wonder if perhaps writers should sacrifice their style or message, at least at the start, to get noticed like...
The hardest thing for an unpublished writer to face is that first rejection letter. Up until then there is always some hope at the back of your mind that you might have written a masterpiece. Otherwise why would you really bother? Unlike other arts there is not the fame or really the money to tempt you.
However with the first rejection you know that you’re not amazing, that your work wont...
Another hectic day when my plans to do a sly 1,000 of my new work has been kicked out the window by my ‘real’ work. I think it is one of toughest things about trying to write a novel is spending most your day slaving and typing for something dull and business related when you have a brilliant idea bubbling away in your head…
But I wanted to spend 5 minutes just updating people...
Welcome
Howdy and welcome to my blog, paperback writer, which will be following all my frustrations and disappointments- and perhaps even eventual sucess- as I attempt to get my maiden novel published.
After nearly two years of writing, revising and agonising I finally finished my first novel two months ago. After a month of well deserved drinking (which was meant to last a weekend but slipped) and then...