So it happened today. Another step towards a dream and a goal of mine. I submitted my book to BubbleCow, an editing company in the UK. After searching for the best people to edit my book, I revisited a website I have known about for some time The Creative Penn written by Joanna Penn. Joanna is a successful self-published author and I value the amount of care she puts into her work. She had a whole post on editors and when I found BubbleCow I felt some real connection. I just hope they feel the same way about me. I submitted the book and then I got a message saying that they just need to check to see whether they are the right editors for my book, which I guess is kind of neat! I want the right people helping me to make my book better. Below is the blurb for my book...Just in case you are interested. Lenora sat with the rawness of her memories. They sat like china pieces, sharp, fragile and finally being put back in place to form the ugliest vase Lenora had ever seen. Words can change everything. Rosie is ripped from her mother’s loving arms when she is just three years old. She is placed into a series of foster homes; her only solace comes from her writing. She has always felt alone in the world. When Rosie finds something from her past she must confront the possibility that her mother, the one she had always been told was mentally unstable, just might have been set up. Yet what if her mother does turn out to be crazy? Rosie knows all too well that some things are better left in the past. Jacob has his own burden to carry; yet when he and Rosie meet he finally finds someone who can understand his pain. Sarah has kept her shame and guilt hidden for so long but feels it’s time to let her truth out. Mary, who is nursing her own broken heart, listens to Sarah’s story as it unfolds into something she will ultimately be left holding. Lenora waits for her daughter to come find her or might she be the one to find her daughter? Spanning 1970’s to present and telling the story of two girls torn apart by love, A Pocket Called Past shows us what consequences secrets and regret can have in our lives and how we go about picking back up the pieces. Gary from BubbleCow said he will endeavour to return my book within around 28 days so by the New Year, I should be able to pop my book up onto Kindle in Amazon and self-publish!! Exciting.
This is my first work of fiction and I cannot wait to see what the editor does to make it a better book, as I am SURE he will :) Yvonne x The rain is pounding at the windows in my office as I write and I am snuggled up to the radiator.
Recently I realised that I had all but stopped writing. I actually know exactly why. I have been working away on my other business Safe Space Coaching and dreaming up new business offerings. I don't really believe in Balance. We are always giving our attention to one thing more than another. Currently I am learning French, researching my second fiction novel, thinking of finishing my first non-fiction novel (part memoir/part self-help), learning the language of sales, improving my written English, competing in my first Bikini Series Challenge (don't ask) and taking care of my home. Now, I cannot possibly get all of the work done that I need to do on all of these during ONE day. I have trello boards for all of them and plans too but that doesn't mean they are balanced...AT ALL. I'm tired just reading that back really. ZZzzzzz I adore writing and I have a friend who is waiting on my completed chapter, which I have mostly completed, but once I finished the book I must admit I got impatient and wanted to start the next one right away! Alas, I find myself unable to start writing it because I know nothing about the time period...PERIOD! It will take lots of research to know how things were in the 1860's in Scotland and NZ. Then why aren't I writing more of just anything? You did look at the list above right? I know, I know...So everyone is busy, I get it. We all have the same amount of time in the day as the next person so I ought to just dive in. Except, I want to do my best and not do something half-arsed. Is it better to do something than nothing? That is the question I pose to you new writers? How do you ensure you are writing daily? What do you sacrifice to make it happen? What falls off your plate? I would LOVE to know. You can comment here or tweet me back @safespace. Happy Monday :) Not only is one of my fave authors a great and talented writer, she is also a wonderful speaker. Her messages are clear and simple yet profound. So I submitted my book Harper Collins NZ Wednesday post and Allen & Unwin’s Friday Pitch a few weeks ago. It was with a slightly trembling hand that I pressed the submit button first making doubly sure I had actually filled everything out correctly and attached everything I needed to attach. It was scary and yet exciting. HC wanted the first three chapters. Allen & Unwin only wanted one chapter. I knew deep down that it would be a miracle if I heard anything back at all. I knew this but yet some small part of me hoped that maybe this would be it. Then I thought how I would feel if it went either way. I boldly said to my husband, chest puffed and fists tight, that if I just expected not to hear anything back then I would be ok. He looked at me and smiled. It will still sting he said. Remember though, it is all so subjective. Then it got me thinking. It is so subjective. This writing business is not for the faint of heart but take heart in this, new writers out there (who aren’t yet published), it is not a rejection of you as a person. I will repeat that because the weight of these words deserves a repeat. It is NOT a rejection of you as a person. Period. There is a reason that they tell you, once you actually work up the courage to push the submit button, that if unsuccessful you will not hear back from them. They get hundreds of manuscripts in these open submissions- they simply couldn’t give feedback on every single on now could they? Back to the rejection part. Imagine your email with attachments is opened. The person opening them will have got up that morning and maybe they had a great sleep, maybe they had a shitty one. Maybe they just had a fight with their boyfriend or parent and without them knowing it already, their world is a different place. Trust me, I work with people…a lot and I know the subconscious mind well. So their filter may be on or off depending on their morning. They read your synopsis and maybe they snore, maybe they yawn. They have just had so many like this lately. Same storyline, same idea and they may not even go any further. They may still read it but say they have already just accepted someone whose story is very similar to yours. Or whose writing style is in the same vein. Your manuscript will just go into the reject pile and they will move on. Now that is perfectly ok. They may even have thought your writing sucked or lacked any sparkle or potential. This STILL doesn’t mean you have been rejected. This is just your manuscript we’re discussing here. The person who reads your manuscript may never meet you, doesn’t know what you look like, who you are or what goodness you have carried out in your life. All they know is that they don’t wish to publish this particular piece of work. Don’t make it about you. When I didn’t hear back after the 2 and 3 week cut off dates, obviously I was a little bit stung. Then I looked myself in the eye, no I actually did, in the mirror and I told myself that I was bloody brilliant. I wrote a novel. A friggin novel. Me, someone who always said they wanted to finish a manuscript had actually ticked that off her list. I will obviously keep trying to get it out there and even if I have to go down the self-publishing route, I will do what it takes. I will not allow myself to feel defeated by a rejection and neither should you. Imagine if J.K had done that… Would love to hear your thoughts on this one. |
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December 2018
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