Chasing Pavements

Any writer out there knows the road to publication is not the shortest nor smoothest. Statistically the chances of a first time author getting published are minuscule - unless of course you're a movie star, pop star, or celebrity chef! But for us mere mortals it is a seemingly elusive dream - an exercise in chasing pavements.

Submission after submission, rejection after rejection. Hoping that the 1 or 2 authors an agent takes on a year out of the 100-200 submissions they receive each day (don't do the maths - it's depressing) is you.

So why do it? Why put ourselves out there, set ourselves up for heartbreak, open ourselves to being so vulnerable as to have our souls rejected? The simple answer - because we must. When JK Rowling put 'The Casual Vacancy' out there, she was asked why take the risk, it's not as though she needed the money. Her response - "I need to write...as a writer, what you really want it to have a conversation with readers."

When you discover that you love to write, there is nothing else in this world you can imagine doing.

So, my manuscript has been written. And re-written, and re-worked, and re-tweaked and re-jigged and it is now out there. Sitting in agents' in boxes or on their desks, waiting to be read, waiting to be that 1 in 70,000 (OK I did the maths!) picked up by an agent.

Follow me as I chase my pavements - the ups and downs, the agony and (hopefully) ecstasy. It's sure be one hell of a ride!

S
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