Needle-in-Haystacking

The vague idea behind starting a personal blog was because at some point I would become a published writer and I wanted some kind of online presence, but I don't much talk about writing these days. So I thought I would point out that I do still write and even more surprisingly, I have been sending things off.

I have a table where I can keep track of who I have approached with which stories. Unfortunately I only started this table two years ago, so I have almost no idea what stories I entered into what competitions or submitted to what magazines in the twelve years before that. I did go through the drafts of the two novels with which I know I have approached agents before to see if I had saved my cover letters and so would be able to tell who I actually contacted, but I am not 100% sure how accurate that is (just because I wrote a letter doesn't mean I sent it and conversely, if I sent an email I might not have saved a letter). But it gives me a rough idea.

According to that, I sent off my first novel, a comic fantasy about a medium and an undead mortician, working title: Rigor Morris, to an agency in 2009 and then it took me another two years before I sent it off to two other agencies. None were interested, and I think back then I sent it off once and waited for a reply before submitting it elsewhere, so that was a long and painful process. At the time, I thought that my incredibly dry and possibly mis-addressed cover letters must have let me down.

Three years later, I sent off my magnum opus, a historical crime about two con artists in WWII, working title: The Road To Confidence, to five agents all at once.. I seem to recall that four said no thank you and one never got back to me. I told myself it was the long word count that sabotaged me, because if an agent sees a first-time novelist with a long word count they think you don't know how to edit. Later that year, I also entered it into some ITV competition because bafflingly Caroline Quentin was one of the judges and I thought hey I loved her when I was a kid so it must be fate, she wouldn't let me down, but she did.


And then I just continued writing novels and not sending them off because the whole process was so terrifying, but I gave myself a kick at the start of this year, and I started sending off my children's novel, a comic fantasy about two kids getting stuck inside a fairy tale and one of them siding with the bad guy, working title: Evelynland, which I have ended up sending to nineteen agents... I really thought that some of them would want to at least see more, but so far I have had eleven rejections and I presume, due to the time frame, another four have passed but didn't respond at all. There is a chance that the final four might be interested but frankly by this point I doubt it. I have once again started to blame my word count which might be a bit long for a middle grade audience. On the other hand, it could just be that it is really hard to break into children's fiction or that the genre or themes just aren't trending right now. I know that I am a good writer, so I don't doubt the quality of my work. Although I DO doubt the quality of my work as soon as I get one rejection, but I know that is anxiety and not truth.


Since I have now lost hope that working title: Evelynland is going to catch anyone's interest at the moment, I need to think about what manuscript I should focus on next. Both working title: Rigor Morris and working title: The Road To Confidence are even more polished than they were back in the day and there are plenty more agents I could approach for either. I have a fourth novel manuscript that is technically finished, but I don't know who would actually enjoy reading it other than me. Meanwhile I have two other novel manuscripts in the works that are practically ready. (Let's not talk about just how many in-progress projects I have on the go and I can't focus on a single one.)


I have been focusing on competitions while I was waiting to hear back from agents, and I currently have nine short stories entered into different comps and my three adult novels too. This has probably just been a pointless drain on my bank account that won't amount to anything, but I just gotta do something! I have been writing for so long that I have so much work in progress and NOTHING to show for it professionally. The last time I saw print or earned any money from writing, I was still at university. And I could really do with the additional income right now. Plus the fact that it is my life's dream / mission to be a published author.


I have also started a writing group on Facebook, which I am hoping will help some of my writer friends who have been lacking motivation and help me find people to critique some of my work-in-progress. We did a timed assignment on Monday that I think went down pretty well.


So that's my update. See you next year to find out if any of it went anywhere.