Forgive the provocative title, I’m sure your book is wonderful, but I’m guessing that the self-doubt the writing process is riddled with isn’t something only I have experienced! In fact, Francis, my ‘fairy book father’ (I really must find a better way of describing him) reassures me that self-doubt is pretty much inevitable. The process of writing is, for the most part, a solitary pursuit. Every now and then some clever soul conspires a way of writing that involves other people; co-writing, basing a book on interviews or… well there must be a third way that escapes me now (and writing being what it is, there’s no one here to ask). Even these people will be faced with a fair amount of editing or compiling that is shared only with the computer keyboard. And it’s hard to sustain that initial resolve that you have something to say 100% of the time. […]
Getting a Book Published: Contacting a Literary Agent
With my adviser Francis to guide me I’m feeling a lot more comfortable about navigating my way through the world of publishing – not that that’s any guarantee of success – and I will try and share as much as I can from my “industry angel” as I like to think of him. I sent my proposed submission to Francis to give him a better idea of the sort of book I’m writing, to get some suggestions about what I might do to make it more attractive and to seek his view on whether or not I should try to get a literary agent. Firstly, he was very complementary about my opening chapter; thus far the few people I’ve shared it with have been very positive about it. Of course, I know enough about the dangers of the research process so I’m not reading too much into this; nevertheless a […]
Getting Published: Finding a Francis
Last time I promised I would explain more about Francis and so I will (although a little later than I’d planned because of a very pleasant summer holiday in France). Having finished my book and received some truly excellent advice on how to approach publishers from the course I took with Kevin Hogan, I still found myself with something of a problem The publishing world is large. It’s more than large. It’s massive. And it’s not just a matter of there being companies that publish books, there are also literary agents to consider. Do I need a literary agent? Good question (and one I’ll answer further next time). I have discovered that many publishers won’t accept an unsolicited manuscript. This, it seems, is their way of telling you not to bother. They presumably work on the basis that if your book was any good then a literary agent would want to […]
Getting Published: Finding Inspiration for the Struggle
As readers of my previous blogs will know, I’m condensing the first part of my journey in trying to get my book published because some stages have taken weeks, during which all I’ve been doing is waiting for replies. This raises a really important point: how do you find the energy to keep plugging away when things get tough, either when writing or when attempting to get published? My solution is to keep half an eye out for inspiration all the time. I received a signed photograph of my favourite guitar player (Eric Clapton) for Christmas and, remarkably, a Fender Custom Shop Masterbuilt Clapton Stratocaster from my family and friends for my 40th birthday. The presence of both of these in my office inspire me. Clapton is a genius in my mind, but that genius was achieved by him playing guitar for hours because it was something he was passionate […]
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