The front cover of my new children’s book is ready and I’m just putting the final colours on the images. I am eager to get this published as soon as possible but I am not rushing through the processes. I must be thorough and do everything in the correct way. Here is a teaser of the front cover; more will be revealed shortly…
I’m just making a few more changes to my book before I start the ball rolling on getting it published.
I’ve been up since 7:30 working on my next book and it’s almost there.
A few tweaks here and there and I will be deciding on which printers to use and my self-publishing options. It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to release it. It’s a lot of hard work but I love it. When you’re doing something you love then you want to work for hours and hours on it. Once again, I’m having to be patient, which is not my strong suit. It’s all part of the process, I guess.
So it’s been a while since I spoke about my first book and that’s because… not a lot has happened. It’s out there on publisher’s desks and in the inboxes of various literary agents. This one is my flagship book, which I ideally want to get published traditionally. I’ve made various adaptations to it and I have listened to and taken on board some frank, constructive criticism. It’s getting better and better each time someone in the know gives me feedback on it. Similarly, each time I submit my book my covering letter, synopsis and personal statement is getting better and better. Each ‘no’ represents an opportunity to improve (cheesy, I know).
After a full week, I got into work on Friday to see there was a visitor coming in to school to work with the children. After seeing his name, bells started to ring as I realised he was the children’s author: Richard O’Neill. As soon as an opportunity arose, I introduced myself and asked if I could pick his brains about the world of children’s books. He was extremely helpful and gave me some excellent advice. He even asked to see my book and went through it with me during the lunch break. It was amazing to get feedback from a successful storyteller and I was particularly pleased when he said he liked it.
So, the journey continues as I’ve now had more input, which I will heed as I go back and edit my book once more. I’m on a long road but it is a very interesting one as I continue on the cycle of sharing my book, getting feedback and then editing it.
Well, it has been an interesting couple of weeks… A few blogs ago I was talking about the importance of networking and there has been some movement on that front. Now people know about my book, word is starting to get around. I’ve been in contact with someone within the world of children’s literature, who has been doing some great work forwarding my book/ideas to the right people. On the back of this, I’ve had some very useful feedback on my book from people with excellent knowledge and experience, which has led to some new publishers interested in me sending them a proposal of my work. I’m not arrogant enough to think my first draft of a children’s book will be perfect so I’m willing to take on board feedback and make changes to my story, design and style, if necessary. Let’s be honest, this is my first attempt and there are people out there with great knowledge and experience in this area.
This is going to be a long road but I’m really happy that there is a buzz developing and people are discussing my work.
When I was trolling through dozens of publishers I learnt that unless you’ve already had a book published some publishers/literary agents won’t even look at your work… Okay, so how do I get my FIRST book published if I already have to have one published for them to look at me?
This scenario reminded me of other situations I have come across, such as premier league football tickets. A lot of top clubs will only sell tickets to people who have been before, but surely everyone must have a first time of going… Also, this reminded me of some employment opportunities, where employers want someone with experience. How do you get experience without being given an initial opportunity?
Thankfully, there are some publishers who will accept manuscripts from first time authors and these are the ones that I need to approach.
Now I’m in this stage of hiatus, waiting to hear from publishers, I wanted to do something productive that may help me along the way. At first, it was a big secret that I had written/illustrated a book and I’m not sure why. Perhaps I wanted to surprise people, perhaps I was worried about not finishing it or perhaps I was afraid of failure. In the end, the few people who did know about my book encouraged me to tell people and get the word out.
The best quote from one my friends was, “You’re writing a secret book… that’s going to sell well!” This got me thinking; I’m not going to get anywhere if I don’t get myself out there. Ever heard of the theory of six degrees of separation? You know, that you are linked by a series of seven or fewer acquaintances to anyone in the world… So, here I am spreading the word and asking people who know me to spread the word as all it takes is for the one right person to see it.
Oh, and as for failure, well Mr Churchill said it all, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts…”
I guess it’s true of any opportunity/goal; it takes good timing, a bit of luck and a lot of persistence.
After the roller-coaster of emotions from my false dawn, it was back to the waiting game. I’ve researched and submitted to a fair few suitable publishers and now I have to be patient. Some of the publishers state that they will endeavour to respond within six months as they have a large amount of submissions to go through, some of the publishers say they will hopefully respond within 12 MONTHS and some say that they will only respond if they are interested. This is going to be a testing time for me as I’m the kind of person that wants everything yesterday… I must be more mindful!
This is where I am now. It has not been six months yet so I’m waiting for responses. My plan going forward is to wait until six months has passed and see where I am. If I’ve had no takers then I will submit to some more publishers (perhaps broadening my horizons across the pond). Hopefully, I will gain some feedback on any unsuccessful submissions, which may help me tweak things for future attempts. But hey, I’m still hopeful and continue to believe that one publisher will give me a chance to showcase all of my hard work.
