Ballyalban Fairy Fort

Ballyalban Fairy Fort

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Is this the best rejection ever?

I have been submitting The Ash Grove - and had some hopes of a couple of the UK agents who had it... but today I received this rejection.

This is great and very well-written.  Sadly it’s not for me – this is a period I feel I’ve read about too much in novels – but if by any unlikely chance you don’t find anyone to champion you with the enthusiasm you clearly deserve, do think of me for your next book

Best wishes


Seldom has a pill been so well-sugared.

It confirms the thought that I am "nearly there" but it's worrying that even a "great and very well-written" novel cannot pass muster.  What a bummer!    It makes me wonder whether her opinion reinforces the idea that UK agents are a bit jaded with submissions about WW1 - even though The Ash Grove isn't a mud and blood book.  I never intended to write a book "about" WW1 - it just happens that these events occur in those years.  Perhaps it should be taken as a further hint that I should submit to North American agents who are perhaps a bit less jaded.

Plan B will now come into operation.  It started with me sending her my "last" book - first - last, what does it matter?  It will continue with a massive unrelenting onslaught on North American agents (i.e. at least 3 more submissions in the next month).   No - I must become ruthless and write the sort of businesslike, impersonal letter US agents expect - and receive a plethora of businesslike, impersonal rejections in return no doubt!  Heigh-ho!

No comments:

Post a Comment