By email. I am off for six weeks on Saturday and wondering whether to try and cram in another round of submissions before I go… I have 2 outstanding at the moment and have become very focussed on finishing the new novel – it is, after all, a year since I finished TSBM. Decisions, decisions. [...]

By email: “Thank you for writing to us.  I do apologise for the standard email; we have been so inundated with submissions recently that we are unable to give each one an individual reply. I do assure you that we have considered your work carefully and I am sorry to say that we feel that [...]

By email, personal, AND a comment on the actual book itself: “Thank you very much for sending the first chapters of your novel, THIRTY SECONDS BEFORE MIDNIGHT.  I was very much intrigued by the premise of the book and by the unusual narrator, but after reading found that the plot moved too slowly for me, [...]

I just received a new review for TSBM on the youwriteon.com site that has really made my day. I’ve been feeling a bit sad about the book’s apparent lack of progress this week and this, in addition to a mature, experienced professional writer saying that he couldn’t see an issue with a tortoise narrator and [...]

I am strangely conflicted. I had shortlisted several new agents to query last week and was delighted to discover that most of them PREFERRED electronic submissions. Technophile/geek that I am that delighted me; so easy to work with, so green, so inexpensive. However, having received two rejections by email today, as follows: “Thanks for sending [...]

T’interweb. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a marvellous thing. Once one manages to learn to ignore, or at least have under control, frivolities like Twitter and Facebook, for a writer there are depthless resources out there. Harper Collins have a website, Authonomy, where you can post your book for feedback [...]

Apart from locating my lost feline on return from paradise, I also assisted with a reading event with a fellow writer, Jane Rusbridge, at Chichester library this week. Jane is a wonderful writer and also a teacher – you can read my interview with her here. I thoroughly enjoyed the event and as a kind [...]

Soooooo…. I’ve been away a couple of weeks. I was meant to be on a three and a half week trip along the ancient Silk Roads (booked 9 months ago) but due to violent political unrest in one of the countries we were travelling through I ended up in paradise, the Seychelles, instead. I had [...]

I prepared 5 new queries for ‘Thirty Seconds Before Midnight’ at the weekend following ultimate rejection from the agent for whom I had prepared rewrites. 2 were electronic submissions and 3 by post. I received a rejection from one of the electronic submissions this afternoon, within a working day of submission. This was from an [...]

Regular visitors to this site will know that I have a thing about non-human narrators. The short story I completed yesterday, ‘The Thought Collector’ has a very famous sculpture telling his story but it’s animal narrators that I’m even more compelled to explore since my first novel, ‘Thirty Seconds Before Midnight‘ is told, in the [...]

Just found the following article online. I’m working on the next batch of queries this week following the decision to remain with Herbert as the key narrator of ‘Thirty Seconds Before Midnight’ although I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with Ollie’s voice (which does appear later in the novel anyway) and the third person unlimited omniscient. It [...]

Well, not entirely square one, about square 12 perhaps (out of how many, who knows?!)… Agent who I recently did the rewrites for just took the time to phone me to say that he was sorry, but he did not see significant improvement in the rewrites I had sent him and was rejecting the work [...]

Today I submitted a sheaf of rewrites to a prospective agent. I initially posted details of their rejection letter as exciting, a personalised response, but after a while, became to think of it more as an expression of interest. Particularly after a 3 minute speed date with another agent at a conference I went to [...]

I just called the agent who sent me an encouraging rejection letter. The gist of my phone call was that I had started some rewrites as he had suggested and felt it would be helpful to me to set a deadline in which to send them in to him. This is true as I have [...]

In my post yesterday I expressed doubts about agents taking electronic submissions seriously. I take this back. Although it is a rejection, the response time is impressive. Not an encouraging one, all it said was: “Many thanks for letting us consider this but I’m afraid that we are going to pass. We wish you all [...]

Two in one day? Harsh, but I can take it. Observations: 1) These two complete the set of 5 queries posted on January 11th 2010 (the 1st went out in November 2009). All of these had stamped, self-addressed postcards enclosed for the recipient to pop in the post to acknowledge receipt. Something that I thought [...]

Exciting! A personalised response – I definitely consider this progress! “Thank you for allowing us to consider THIRTY SECONDS BEFORE MIDNIGHT. I’m delighted that I was recommended by Andrew, and that you also admire Bo Fowler’s “different” writing! A reader and I have read through the chapters you sent. She felt that the idea of [...]

I mentioned recently that I entered an online pitching competition with an agency in NYC. It wasn’t successful but the agent’s response was interesting and has given me something to think about: “Thirty Seconds Before Midnight’ – a rock and roll tragedy. Fusty old aristocrats, the Arnolds, flee their ruined country pile and rock legend [...]

I have just received the third rejection for ‘Thirty Seconds Before Midnight’ (that leaves three remaining out there, none with acknowledged receipt). It reads: “Thank you for writing to us regarding your work. We are afraid that, despite its qualities, we do not feel sufficiently enthusiastic to offer to represent your work. We apologise for [...]

Interestingly, today after having posted yesterday about the status of my queries I have received a rejection back from one of the agencies and not the one that had sent back their postcard acknowledging receipt! So there is a third option other than had not opened package or lost in post and that is, received [...]