Between there...and over there.

There was editing a book I had written. Over there is what happens when a whole load of editors have read it and responded. At the moment, I'm sandwiched in the middle, I neither have a book to edit for an agent nor do I have...well, a book to edit for a publisher. I shall go to the supermarket and do the shopping.


It's been an emotional day. My agent very kindly sent me a copy of her pitch, which was wonderfully written, warm, funny, clever and full of hooks. I can see what she did, but I'm completely sure I couldn't have done it. It's a difficult book to place in a genre, and I know that's a problem, so she's called it 'fresh and original', while planting it with crime and historical with a  touch of fantasy. She didn't even mention the main characters, which is genius, because they are the characters whose stories are most complex, most tangled. Instead, she has gone straight to the historical characters and my Professor.


The agent has obviously been talking the book up for ages, since the Mslexia competition really, and has whetted a lot of appetites. I don't think I have ever realised or appreciated what agents do before. In the past, I wondered if an agent would just be one  more person to worry about, but now I realise she is the buffer between me, and the mean machine that is publishing. If you're writing novels, I wish you every success in getting yourself your own lovely agent, because she has just made it look so easy.


And if the book doesn't sell? I realised today, I've got as close to being published as you can without actually getting a contract, with a book that was easy to write, in fact a pleasure to write. I'm sure I could do a bit better, especially with the advice of an agent to help me. It's all going in the right direction. I have been inspired and encouraged by reading blogs like Jeff Abbott's, Catherine Robertson and Liz Fenwick to name just a few. I hope that my 'journey to publication', the one I started three years ago, will encourage my visitors to do the same (hell, go for it, outdo me!) I'm off to avoid the chocolate aisle and linger in the healthy eating vegetables, before sneaking off for a fat slice of CAKE.