Remember your last trip to the dentist? Or your exam results being sent by post or stuck up on the wall at school? Give a moment's thought to the time you queued for your job interview ands all sat together outside the interview room.
There's a saying that it's the waiting that kills you.
Two days ago I sent off my first three chapters to agents around the country. Well, to be fair, around London mainly. The odd one in Kent, perhaps one in Oxford, but mostly London.
Some wanted to know all about me, some wanted to know where I thought I fitted into today's book market, most wanted 3 chapters. The occasional agency asked me to explain why I felt I was the best person to write the book I did. I chose not to answer this, after all, the book is an autobiography of sorts, so doesn't it go without saying?
But, do you know how long it takes me to submit an enquiry? I reckon, what with reading the article in the Writers' and Authors' Yearbook, checking Google to see whether the agency still exists (they seem to come and go with regular monotony) looking up the agency to see if they are currently accepting submissions, reading through the individual agents' wish-list, compiling the introductory email, editing my profile according to the submission notes, adding the story synopsis, tailoring the three chapters (some want 1.5 or 2 spacing) and attaching them to the email, it must have taken me about 45 minutes per agent. Thankfully, not everyone wanted to read my wonderful book, some saying they were not accepting manuscripts at the moment, some not looking for non-fiction, some not keen on memoir, others looking for submissions by mail and not by email. At least this served as a means of whittling the dozens of agents down to a useful number.
And now the waiting begins. One or two will undoubtedly respond in days. Not our kettle of fish, thank you for thinking of us. Then, there are those who read it but don't reply unless they really want to read more. The odd one will want to see another chapter perhaps, and those are the ones I will be waiting for. Up to ten whole weeks in some cases.
It's the waiting that does it. #publishers #agents #waiting #Mal
