Thursday 12 February 2009

Fighting the urge.

As I've told you before it is my plan and my hope to have my book ready to go out to agents and publishers by the end of the year and I've been plodding along with my rewrite quite nicely. How ever (elongated word) I have been given a heads up about an agent and now I'm feeling ...oh I don't know what the word is but I'm feeling it. I had been given the names of two agents to try and I had sent it to the first one who said that they really liked the writing but weren't in the position to take on anyone at that time but I didn't try the second. i found the two names written on a scrap of paper the other day and it was like karma or something. I want to send my novel off and have it accepted and be loved by the literary world right this second but I know that it's probably not ready yet and so I don't want to send it off until it is. I am by very nature an impulsive person who hates to wait for anything that I want so it's very hard to fight the urge. I am trying though. I'm trying to tell myself that I cannot send it off until....
So far I have come up with - the first rewrite is completed.
Anyone for anymore.
BTW it's snowing again here - again and my oldest friend was laid of yesterday without any warning. Just ta ta and go home. It sucks.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please keep fighting the urge until you're totally happy that your book is as perfect as you can get it. This is the advice I've been given and I believe it to be good advice, though without actual experience.

If you jump the gun, you'll risk adding time to the process. The only person delaying your project at the moment is you, but when it's "out there" the delays are compounded by those of the business and its long procedures. Of course, you might be lucky/brilliant and get accepted first time, but statistics suggest otherwise.

Has your book been read by trusted readers? That would be a good first step. Once you've gained all the feedback you can get for free (or cheaply), then I'd start the professional ball rolling.

Sorry to hear about your friend. Redundancy sucks. I know.

Karen said...

That's horrible, about the friend and yes, I'm very impatient too. I sent out my First Ever novel when I'd only written three chapters, and panicked when I got a request for the full ms. I've never written so fast in all my life, but it was subsequently rejected. There's a lesson in there somewhere!

Colette McCormick said...

I think that you are both right. I need to make it the best I can.
You're right captain, redundancy des suck. I too know from bitter experience.
Sorry to hear that the full book was rejected Karen but you should be encouraged by the fact that they wanted to see the rest of it after reading the first three chapters.

Annie Wicking said...

I don't me to name drop here, but P.D James told me 'Never send your work out until you a happy with it'.

Which is fine, but she never ever has suffered from rejection because a friend of her who was reading her MS at the time went to a dinner party and was sitting next to a publisher. They got talking about looking for another crime writer, when PD James' friend mention that she was reading her friend's MS and they said send it long and the rest is history....

Do you know of any friend who are going to dinner parties?.... lol

Best wishes and good luck (((Hugs))

Annie

Colette McCormick said...

Annie, you name drop all you like. Great story too. I didn't know that. Some people have all the luck. Sadly I don't think that any of my friends are going to be at the same dinner parties as anyone who could help me with my book.