A rapid response - 2 days later!

"I don't feel it's right for our list" is a common kiss-off line from agents.  It's actually perfectly fair and plausible - they feel the authors they represent have a certain "house style".  Which, especially in a smaller agency, is almost certainly true, since their authors are all hand-picked after all.  But when you look at a literary agency's client list and find it is full of people you haven't heard of, who have written books with really unattractive covers, it becomes difficult to know whether you fit into that particular bunch of "middle list writers" you haven't heard of, or another bunch, represented by another agency.  What you could do of course, is check out some of those authors' works on Amazon.  This would take a few hours, days, if you were really assiduous, but at least you'd know not to submit to that agency.  

The trouble is, all the writers I really like are represented by uber grand agents - who don't even allow writers to submit to them - you could burn incense and rare meats under their noses for 40 days and still be turned away.  Short of being personally introduced to them by William Boyd or Seb Faulks you have no chance with these guys.  Being rejected by them would be a privilege, being rejected by a small agency run by two young women who were made redundant from publishing jobs and couldn't think of anything else to do, feels a bit humiliating.  I know, I am sounding all Ed Reardon now... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r5ck) but, like the Murphy's, I'm not bitter. And I would, of course, be very happy to be taken on by any agency run by two young women recently made redundant from publishing jobs. Or indeed, run by men, coyotes, or mutants from outer space.  

Trumpet sounding....

It is all about the publicity isn't it?  So when I submitted to the agent who'd been on my mind, I saw that her agency wanted evidence of what one had done to promote the book.   Now, to me it seems like appalling hubris, but some people start FB pages to promote their books, usually after they are published.  However, other people start pages before that, and I have now joined their ranks.   This is the link  https://www.facebook.com/The-Malice-of-Fairies-519328408225637/timeline/

I had of course posted on FB in July, a link to this blog and the first chapter, and I'd tweeted about it...but having a whole Fb page seemed one step towards hubris...self-delusion, and downfall.  Anyway, so far I have 43 likes which isn't bad - and even likes from people who don't know me.  So now I suppose I had better go off and tweet the link to my followers (all ? 200 of them).   And then I have to think of new interesting content. Which I might stick up here on the blog... and post links to it.  It's a kind of massive circle jerk really.

Today's rejection

I had an agent rejection - it was " You write well, but I'm just not sure it'll stand out enough in what is such a competitive market." 

What, there are so many fairy abduction novels out there?  No, she just didn't like it.  No matter.  I would love to know where all these mysterious agents who represent books about fairies are though!

For the last few days I've had a particular agent's name on my mind - but I'm not sure if she represents this sort of novel, still, I can but hope.  I wrote a longer than usual account of myself, since this agency wants to know if one is approaching the matter in the most professional way possible.  So as a result I felt compelled to set up an FB page.  Then I felt full of hubris - suppose this one doesn't make it either?  How silly will I look?  I am searching for some nice images for the page, I was looking, inevitably at Arthur Rackham, and I found this one rather sympathetic. I don't think it's quite what I want on the cover though.  If there ever is a cover.  Then again, who knows, I might be searching for covers any month now.

A submission to a publisher

I have never submitted one of my novels directly to a publisher before - and today I have.   A few weeks ago I attended a mini literary festival called "Margate Bookie" where I met (amongst others) Matthew Smith of the newish independent publishers "Urbane Publications".  I heard him speak at WhitLit in May, and Tara was so impressed that she signed with him.  I interrogated him about his publishing model, which he calls "collaborative publishing" and involves more input, and work, from authors.  But the work is chiefly of the going around and doing signing and speaking about your book - which I can't see would be totally arduous.

I sent him a note 2 weeks ago, and didn't get a reply and I was a bit discouraged, but now I thought, Oh sod it, just send it to him.  He had said I could if I wanted to.  I think we were both being a bit "cool".  Today I received another lovely rejection from Juliet Pickering who said she just didn't "do" suspension of disbelief and thus not magical realism...but many other agents would.  I cheekily asked her to suggest a couple of agents to help cut down the slop of submissions.  We'll see, I've also done one agent submission this morning - so I'm hoping!

Anyway, I am full of grandiose ideas about how this novel will do commercially - and wonder what to do next - I had planned lots of agent submissions this week, but if Matthew likes it I will be writing a different sort of letter.  And maybe I could focus on US submissions instead.

The unnerving thing is that I know about this, I am feeling an internal resolved confidence that I haven't felt about anything for years (oh wait - did I know TRF was going to be published - ulp, I think I did).  Then again I sort of knew that I would get some interest in another quarter (not being explicit here for fear of making assumptions) and I have had, just need to do the necessary work first.  Anyway, we'll see.  Of course one is always hopeful about a new production, but the fact that I've had so much really good feedback on this one does make me more confident.  Of course there are those whose response is "Urggh - fairies" (who include the author of Duncton Wood - a series of books about talking badgers).  But most people love the premise - the uber rational meeting the irrational world.  One reader enjoyed the fairy sections more than the real world ones - and that seems to be a good thing - suggesting I've successfully conveyed the relative dullness of Deirdre's world - compared with the intensite of life in Faery... the opposite of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell - which is a most wonderful, incomparable, book.  And may be that tension between the two worlds is something I want to consider - if I continue to write about the "interface" between these worlds.  Traditionally faery isn't much fun... all the appearances are just glamour...to hide the truth of what it's really like, and of course because it was important to distinguish between the false pleasures of faery and the true pleasures of Heaven...

The real inspiration of the book though is the Pilgrim plays of Sebastian Bankiewicz - which deal with real humans who come into contact with faery or magical matters.  He bases his stuff in English folk traditions...but still comes across examples of belief in the "old ways"... white magic etc.  I should have researched that more.