So here’s the thing. If I convinced you that crossing the road without looking was a wonderful, amazing, liberating, life-transforming experience, and I mean really convinced you so that you believed it, what would happen? You would take your first attempt with extreme nervousness, shaking with fear, but you would probably make it across the road just fine. With your senses heightened you wouldn’t really be using your new-found faith in traversing streets with total disregard for what was passing: no you would heighten your other senses until you were certain it was safe and then over you would go. Of course, after a while, if I’d done a really good job and kept reinforcing the message, you would start to foster the genuine belief that you didn’t need to look to cross the road. After all, you’ve now got my enthusiastic message – and I’d tell you about how […]
Democracy Mudered by an Opinion Poll
Once upon a time there was a country. They were having a very difficult time indeed. Some greedy goblins had got out of control and now everyone in the land was troubled. The money that the greedy goblins had taken had somehow disappeared, some said they had taken money that never existed, and now everyone was having to repay it whether it ever existed or not. Everyone except the goblins that is, who had somehow found a way to get more money for themselves – but that’s another story. Anyway, the country had a democratic process of sorts, of which it was most proud. And in the midst of the “difficult time” it replaced one leader with another one, who thought things should be done a little differently. This was done through something called “voting”, where those who wanted to shape what the country did explained their ideas and then […]
Getting a Book Published: Life is About Moments
The path to writing a book and getting it published is, without doubt, one that winds a lot. On the way there will be plenty of dead-ends and no shortage of obstacles to circumnavigate. However, what makes all the anguish worthwhile, are the moments that result from starting out and that are every bit as gratifying as the writer’s block, rejection letters and suggested revisions are aggravating. I find there are usually three ways to deal with virtually any situation in life: ignore it and carry on regardless, take it badly or use it for inspiration. It’s no coincidence that there really was something to learn from each ‘bad’ moment along the way. Writer’s block: (which I hardly ever got) you’re trying to hard, go and do something else for a bit, or skip this section for now, it’s obviously not flowing. Rejection letters: there’s always a lot of luck […]
Getting a Book Published: Success!!
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated you on the trials and tribulations of getting a book into print. Just to recap, I’d opted for the route of getting a publisher for various reasons, and since that time have been submitting my book to a number of publishers and some literary agents. I submitted the book to just three literary agents and three publishers. With hindsight I think the decision to move from pursuing literary agents to publishers was an astute one: publishers have, by necessity, a broader interest sphere than literary agents. From what I gather, I have been extremely fortunate in finding a publisher after so few attempts – I hope some of what I’ve learned along the way and covered in previous blogs helps any of you looking to have a book published. No doubt I’ve been extremely lucky. I was lucky to be inspired to write […]
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