Getting Published

Let me nail the ‘Long-Distance’ bit of the title as I don’t imagine that the ‘Loneliness’ part needs any explanation.    It’s purely a function of time, not miles.

In the time-honoured cliché, I’d always felt a book lay within me, albeit invisibly deeply.  Being made redundant and deciding to go freelance created the space and time in which to contemplate the possibility.  I didn’t set out to write something that might be published.  It was much more that I needed to know that I could do it; ‘it’ being create something from thin air that worked. ‘Worked’ meaning that it had integrity, a sense of purpose and being.

If you’d told me then it would take eighteen years from first contemplation to final realisation, I may well have taken up some other life challenge, perhaps crocheting or self-waxing.

But then again ...

Who, once they’ve written, would ever really want to be without the joy of sculpting a …

Good morning and good Monday writers! Have you been thinking about submitting your work to an agent or publisher recently? If so, does the prospect fill you with fear?

Don’t despair – you’re not alone. It takes a different set of skills to put together a good submission package than to write a book. There are obviously some areas of overlap, but it’s worth putting the time in to learn a few tricks of the trade, as it can make all the difference between your envelope being opened and swiftly returned, and an actual assessment of your writing.

So what do you send? Firstly, check the agent’s submission requirements. There is no point sending what hasn’t been asked for, they will assume you can’t follow instructions which is not a great start to a potential professional relationship.

Most agencies will ask for a similar amount of material, and will include a submission letter, a synopsis, and the first three chapters.

So – submission letter – a simple statement of what …

The journey begins ...

... or, to be more accurate, the next stage of the journey begins.

A publishing contract has been signed and so the first leg, writing the thing, is over.  I now must treat it as though hewn from stone, rather than the waters of creativity.  No more tweaking, time to move on.  It's been with me so long that it might be hard to let go ... but let go I must!

So what are my hopes and fears for ‘Grosse Fugue’?  Should I reveal my innermost thoughts?  Perhaps not yet.  As any author knows, the greatest hunger is for an audience, preferably one as large as possible.  Of course, there's a revenue attraction to that.  But for many, it's just the notion of our work being read by many hearts and minds.

A few may love it, many may loathe it.  A handful might be moved, others offended.  With any luck, no-one will be indifferent, the true mark of failure.  But I hope that some may be …

A submission letter can be a terrifying hurdle to overcome in the journey towards possible publication, but there are some simple steps you can take to make it less of a chore.

For this blog I’m going to focus on five very practical elements of a submission.  If you read this and think ‘surely no-one could make THAT sort of mistake’ – I’ve seen many many cases of the following examples, and I’m not alone…

1.     Who are you sending it to?

Address your letter politely and accurately.  ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ looks sloppy, ‘Dear Abner’ (of Abner Stein) looks ill-informed – he died a year ago.  Make sure you’ve got the gender right.  Don’t write to Lady Agent and then start the letter ‘Dear Sir’.

2.     How easy is it to read?

The cliché is that poor authors and lunatics write great reams of correspondence in green ink in hard to decipher …

How many have you broken so far?  It’s the first working day back after the New Year celebrations, and everyone is awash with New Year Resolutions.  But while some are swimming out with confidence, full of the joy of the detox and the exercise plans, others are floundering.

The trouble with New Year’s resolutions is that they tend to be over ambitious, vague, and punitive.  So if ‘Get FIT this year at LAST’ sounds familiar, consider a rethink. 

A fantastic book I’ve read about developing new habits suggests doing something counter-intuitive.  Martha Beck’s Four Day Win (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Win-Change-Think-About/dp/0749928085) which works for a variety of intentions, asks you to think about what you could reliably commit to.  Then halve it, and halve it again.  So if you’re full of the exercise bug and want to exercise five times a week – commit to doing it once a week.  This approach is a win-win …