Progress

I have been feeling ebulliently cheerful today.  I have momentarily been convinced that The Malice of Fairies is going to really appeal to some of these publishers and agents.  I have sent it off to a UK publisher, a UK agent and two US agents today.  The UK agent would appreciate time to consider the book without feeling other agents are also in the race.  That is a charming idea, and if it means they will take it, then great.  However I suspect it will just mean their reader has a more leisurely period for dismissing it in.

Since it's nearly full moon, here's one I took in September

Agents are so different - there are clearly some who go through their own inboxes and answer rapidly, and others who farm everything out to readers, who may or may not reflect the agent's wishlist.  And then again, those wishlists, they are so full of things that ring a bell, that make one feel a common bond with the agent, which the agent doesn't really recognise when looking at your submission.  For some reason I don't have much hope of Head of Zeus, mostly because they seem to publish more thrillers than anything else.  They say they publish literary/commercial etc. so there's no reason why they shouldn't.  Especially a literary/commercial novel with magical elements that will appeal to everyone, and is set in Ireland - a place revered around the world for general magic and mystery.  There is another publisher called "& Other Stories" which sounds feasible - but might actually be too literary for me...  There's nothing very experimental about TMOF except the subject.

Damn it, someone out there must publish it sooner or later.  I really believe in it, but there's always the nagging voice that says "well no one's liked it so far".  Apparently one failure of human intellect is to assume the future will be like the past.  I have to assume, quite strongly, that it will not be. But I have always believed in the possibility of change and this is how I persist.