Yes. It’s another blog.
Another blog belonging to an unpublished writer, no less.
I’m even going to start it with the those seldom-heard words: ‘This one is going to be a little bit different.’ And I genuinely intend it to be. As often happens in life, things don’t always turn out quite as you’d like them to (and as proof of this, I refer you to the phrase unpublished writer a few lines up from this one), so I think it’s only fair that I point out what I’m going to be chatting about here – which is pretty much anything: my favourite books, my favourite writers, odd bits of music I hear on the telly, cats (we have two and a funeral pyre of shredded wildlife in the garden to prove it). I might even throw in the odd picture or two (I travel a lot). But mostly I’ll be talking about writing, so I guess that’s a good place to start.
A few weeks back, I posted my first novel on the Kindle bookstore:
Regarding Avalon is a science-fiction crime thriller I completed about a year ago. Since then it’s spent another six months doing the agency rounds before arriving back on my desk with about twenty firm but gentle ‘no thanks’ tucked under its arm. To be honest I think I was luckier than most since I did receive some very encouraging feedback, and very fair reasons as to why the book wasn’t taken on. One agent said she’d love to represent it, but already had an author who was working on something similar. Another said that it lacked an international feel (the book is set in London, and aside from the frequent forays into virtual reality, doesn’t travel much further than that).
Another said it just made him feel ‘a bit queasy’.
Oookay, upward and onward.
Now at this point, with a stack of rejection letters tutting gently from the coffee table, you find yourself with something of a decision to make.
- Do you assume that twenty agents just don’t ‘get it’ and that someone in the next round will have the intelligence and foresight to see they hold a literary goldmine in their sweaty little hands?
- Or do you think that twenty people with centuries of experience in selling fiction may actually have a point?
A detached rationality is what’s needed here; if you’re a new writer then picking answer number 2 will most probably save your novel.
I think it’s safe to say that ‘the unpublished writer’ isn’t exactly in danger of extinction, but you’ve done better than most by actually finishing something. I’m one of the many unpublished writers blogging about being an unpublished writer, except my issue is trying to convince myself not to scrap something halfway through on the basis that it’s drivel. Good luck with getting your book published – and “a bit queasy” is one of the oddest pieces of feedback I’ve ever heard.
Yes, up until that point I wasn’t even sure ‘queasy’ was a real word.
I’ve probably scrapped more words than I’ve kept, so I think I know what you mean. What I usually do is let it lie for a few weeks and work on something else. If I still don’t like it then it’s time to say goodbye. Have you shown your work to someone else? And I don’t mean family – it’s their job to like your stuff. I’m a big fan of writing groups, the more savage the better.