So near and yet so far ....

Thought I would share my experience of the submissions process so far with you all. I first started  querying a few literary agents about 18 months ago with a fantasy children's series I had written aimed at the 5 - 9 age group. After the usual handful of rejection letters I received an email from a well known agency offering advice. Over the next couple of months I worked on their very insightful suggestions and submitted a revised manuscript. After another couple of months of emails and telephone calls I was DELIGHTED to receive their offer of representation. Brillant, I hear you shout, you made it! Well yes I made it past the first hurdle and I was certainly very hopeful that my dream would be realised.

Before we took the next step of submitting to publishers one of their editors helped polish two of the manuscripts so they were perfect. I have to say this was an enormously useful exercise and I learnt so much from it. A few of the large publishing houses were submitted to and I sat back and tried to wait patiently for the next few weeks. In reality of course I was thinking and wondering what was happening all the time!

Sadly, there was no influx of offers. The market is very slow, I was told but never mind we'll try again. Then another disappointment, my agent left the agency. I had a nice email, recognising my talents and wishing me well with a future agent but unfortuantely they were no longer in a position to offer representation. So near and yet so far...

Of course I feel terribly lucky to have got that close once and it is a huge confidence booster. I can write, people who know all about that sort of thing had faith in me, I can do it again.

I am now considering my next step. Do I wait a while, work on my 2nd draft of the Arrosay story and then submit that as a fresh piece of work? Or, should I start querying agents with my previous series straight away?

The only thing I know for certain today is that I will not give up on my dreams. The only real failure in life is surely failing to try.

So to all you fellow writers out there who might be going through a low patch I say, keep going. If writing is your passion, write. Firstly, for yourself but never forgetting that discovery may just be around the next corner. Good luck.