The search is on

I had to pick myself up a little last week after my novel was rejected by another publisher. However, it was still encouraging as I received such positive feedback which has spurred me on to go down the path of trying to find an agent.

My novel Red Kite has only been rejected six times which is not a lot really, based on the fact that 'Gone With The Wind' by Margaret Mitchell was rejected dozens of times before going on to be a best seller. There are of course countless others of writers that have not got there straight away, after all if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!

I have found it difficult with the timescale and that some publishers only want to see it in isolation, they may hang to it on for months only to reject it, leaving me back at a very low square one.

As I am on holiday this week, I shall begin my quest to search for an agent instead as after reading an interview in ALCS News with Stella Duffy, novelist, playwright and actor, I felt that this was the best way forward when writing fiction.

I have found quite a few agents to approach by searching the Writer's Market and Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, and hope it will increase my chances of eventually publishing my novel. I was running out of publishers who will accept submissions without an agent anyway.

There is also a great article on using agents in the October edition of Writers Forum.