New Year, New Opportunities

It’s New Year’s Eve 2014 and all I can think about is the diet I need to start and how I need to be brave and start submitting my new novel to agents.

Arguably it’s the most difficult part of the whole process. I’ve spent the year working on my novel - telling the story, developing the characters, researching the 50’s and that wonderful, rich Yorkshire dialect. I’ve fallen in love with the fictional town of Fairborough and its colourful residents but the difficult part is what comes next. Now I have to convince an agent to fall in love with it too.

I have to be brave and start sharing something which has been just mine up till now. I have to be prepared for rejection, criticism and try to maintain the unshakable optimism that my work will stand out from the thousands of submissions agents receive.

The fact that I’ve had a novel published before might help but I’m not taking any chances. I shall research agents carefully and only submit to those who have represented authors who write works similar to mine. I will follow their submission policies to the letter. I will agonise over writing my covering letter, knowing that getting it right could be life changing; getting it wrong could be a disaster.

I will add links to my social media, blogs etc, and try to come across as a serious, professional person - rather than a needy person on a strict diet, desperate for chocolate and her big break.

I will be brave – I will try, I will submit, I will diet. Here’s to a slim and successful 2015!