Two Rejections, but the Best so far!

This week has seen both the agents who asked for the full MS reject it. I felt very disappointed and despondent at first, but now I've managed to see how very close I am, which increases the frustration, but also the determination to go that extra mile- or maybe it's only a kilometre by now.

The first said: `I'm afraid the news isn't as good as it could be, and HER SILENT THROAT isn't something for us.  I hope all this means is that we are the wrong advocates for it and that you are about to be snapped up by another.

At your level there is usually a happy ending and I do like hearing them, so will you let me know?

Good luck, and thank you so much for letting us read the whole thing and for your patience.

With all my good wishes'

I felt very childish at first- why isn't it something for you, why did you ask for the full MS- surely you could tell after the first three chapters? I was stamping my (not so little) foot! And then I thought, just focus on `At your level there is usually a happy ending'. When has anyone ever said anything quite so hopeful?

The second agent said: `Thank you for sending me your mss which I enjoyed reading. However I don't feel able to offer representation for the novel in its current form. It has a very strong idea and writing but the issue for me is how Mags' muteness is treated which doesn't ring true for me. Also while it jumps into the story well enough, there isn't a strong enough sense of setting or of character motivation to really make me invest emotionally in the protagonist and her story. However another agent may feel differently. If you do not find representation this time round and decide to do some more work on it, I would be very interested in seeing another draft.

All best wishes'

I don't quite understand what all the comments mean, particularly the one about the treatment of her mutism- is it how other people treat her or how I present her mutism  per se? There seems to be quite a lot to fix, but upon reading the comments for the third or thirteenth time, it's clear the door has definitely been left ajar. Now all that's left is the hard work. And I've never minded that.

Encouragement from an Editor

As I wait to see whether either of the two agents who've asked for the full manuscript wants to take me on- agonisingly, one is away until June 20th and can't look at it until then- I was much cheered by receiving the nicest possible email from Katy Loftus of Penguin Random House. I ran into her at a First Monday Crime night and she'd said she loved the concept of my book and the fact that I was a therapist and therefore knew my stuff. She gave me her card and asked to `take a peek'. It's so rare for a busy editor to devote any time at all to looking at unsolicited material that I think she deserves a big shout-out! This is what she said:

`Hi Amanda

 

I have read all of this now (sorry for the delay)! I am really grateful to you for sharing it with me, and I think you’ve got a great concept and writing style. I can see a lot of potential.

 

I’m afraid I’ve decided that despite that I can’t take it on, but there’s honestly nothing that I didn’t like about it, so please don’t take my email as any form of criticism. It’s just that I am publishing a lot of thrillers over the next two years and I basically don’t have room for more when they’re all in a similar vein. I am really sorry.

 

I am really pleased that you’ve had two call-ins, and I hope that at least one of them bears fruit! Wishing you all the best of luck,

 

Katy x

 

Here's hoping!

 

 

 

 

Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Stephen King and Progress

Stephen King suggests that you should have an ideal reader, IR, in mind when you write. I use my husband, who can be even more impatient than me as a reader. As King says, is your IR going to feel `there's too much pointless talk' in this place or that, that you've `underexplained a certain situation' or overexplained it? I think I'm guilty of both. I know the plot so well, when a reader challenges something, I think: isn't it obvious? Well, no, it's not. As for overexplanation, I just have to imagine my husband wrinkling his nose and saying, `I get it, already!' The IR will also help you if you've forgotten to `resolve some important plot point'. (He cites Raymond Chandler who was once asked about the murdered chauffeur in The Big Sleep  and allegedly said, `Oh him. You know, I forgot all about him.')

An important way to increase the pace of your book is to be quite severe with cutting (`kill your darlings'). He says he got a note from an editor back in his senior year at High School, who said: `Not bad but PUFFY. You need to revise for length. Formula: 2nd draft=1st draft - 10%. Good luck.'

Thanks to a combination of studying Stephen King, attending talks and workshops and meeting up with fellow writers to discuss extracts of our manuscripts, I have just had two agents ask to see my full manuscript. I immediately felt the need to go through it one last time and delete all the adverbs, the over explanations and excessive descriptions and `stage directions'. I averaged 5 pages an hour so it took a while, but I finally managed to cut another 6,000 words (though not 10%, as the total is now 114,000).

As a reward for my progress so far, I'm taking myself off to the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in July with a great series of talks such as `Domestic Suspense- The Killer Behind the Front Door' and lots of my favourite crime writers like Val McDermid, Peter James and Mark Billingham. I've also signed up for the Creative Thursday workshops, including the scary 2 minute Dragon's Den style pitch!

Watch this space.