This week is the Frankfurt Book Fair. For those not in the know it's a huge event in the publishing calendar – probably the biggest. It's a place where all the individual cogs that make up the publishing machine get together and a week when books and authors make headlines with stories of deals and advances and the launching of new talent.
I had a mini-moment of excitement connected with the FBF when my agent told me in the middle of the day that my book, The Only, was being pitched right at that moment to German publishers ahead of the Fair and that it was "going down a storm" - those publishers properly heard my shriek of excitement all the way from Milton Keynes.
Sadly, frustratingly, they decided not to take the book on until a UK publisher did and they all decided I'd missed the boat with the genre. This was one of those creative industry rollercoaster slumps. So, back to the beginning for me, write another book.
Scarily that was three years ago. At the time I really thought that was it for me, I’d got there (wherever there was). That particular route, at that particular time, wasn't to be for me. However, that story got me representation by my lovely agent who believed in it and believes in me as a writer. Thinking about the statistics there where averagely successful agents receive 150+ unsolicited manuscripts a week and only take on a handful of clients a year, if any at all, reminds me that is no small feat.
Carol Matthews, a hugely successful author and a friend of mine, suggested I put The Only up on Amazon, rather than leaving it in a drawer. So I did. And what a brilliant idea that was because it has brought me readers who love my story, which surely is the measure of success for any writer.
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