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.

A positive rejection

I started off today feeling quite positive. The rain came in the night and started to wash the snow away which meant after more than three weeks, I could get into work and continue with my normal life.

I feed my ponies every morning on my journey to work and this morning discovered Chad, my lovely old boy had got his back leg trapped in the strap of his rug. It had been suspended for possibly hours. He had been standing in the same position on three legs, in the snow, fog and rain. When I released the strap, he couldn't put his weight on it, I suppose it was like us having cramp. Humans would try to ease out of it, understanding that they need movement to recover, but he was in too much pain. I called the vet and have spent the next few hours getting him moving gently out of is pain. This meant tempting him around the field with some chocolate, his favourite treat. After spending most of the morning with him, I got him walking again.

I have been going down to his field every two hours and after the second visit, he screamed with delight, surprised at my frequent visits and that I should be giving him yet more food. He appeared to have moved on from the trauma that we had gone through, whilst I was a weeping frazzled wreck!

When I returned home I found a big brown envelope had come through my letter box. Yes, It's another rejection. I didn't even read it properly to start with. I was so cold I couldn't be bothered to subject my self to studying it, but after a while I picked it up again, and on turning over the standard compliment slip they had sent, I noticed that the editor had written some comments by hand, despite their website saying they never give feedback.

They said my story was sweet but the picture book market is saturated at the moment so they have to be cautious.

I felt so good in a really odd way, perhaps just the fact they had been bothered to write something personal to me, and that sometimes it's just the market at the time that is stopping me and not the fact that my writing is not good enough.

Of course my beautiful Chad helped. He showed me in his own way how we can move on from anything, with a little time, support and encouragement.