Friday 24 February 2017

I'm liking Cornerstones even more now, because...

I replied to the free report thing saying that I definitely wanted to go with them, I would just have to wait until I'd saved up enough money.

The same person replied to that email in less than an hour suggesting I looked into getting a grant or bursary from the Arts Council.

I've just set up an account that will take up to 5 working days to validate then I'll have to apply to the Arts Council, but if the application is accepted I'll be able to pay for what Cornerstones suggested in the first email and take it from there!

I can pay them back £10 a week but that's really the total that I can afford right now.  I'm so close to getting an agent though, so I'm willing to pay them back in small chunks if that's OK with them!

Keep me in your thoughts that this goes through for me!

Cornerstones

Just heard back from Cornerstones about KISS that I sent them yesterday and the email was really helpful!  I know where I've been going wrong with my novels so I'm going to work on what I've learnt from that email with all my novels while I'm saving up the £763.33 for the report and 6 hours of mentoring... that's more than I get a month in benefits and with nothing being taken out at all, no bills or shopping or anything.

Other than my bills and groceries and occasional Namehog stuff, I'm not spending anything else until I've saved up for the Cornerstones stuff.  I'm going to give Steve my debit card and tell him to hide it somewhere that I can't find it.  The only time I'm going to use my debit card is for Namehog stuff every few months.

Nothing else.

Every spare penny goes into my secondary account from now on so that I can save up that money I need.

2017 is going to be my year to get an agent.

SCBWI is the first step, Cornerstones the second... everything else will just have to take a back seat for now.



That has to be the quickest rejection ever! lol

Less than 24 hours after subbing to an agent and Toni has been rejected!  That has to be the quickest rejection ever!  lol

Going to leave off subbing for a while and save up for Cornerstones or Golden Egg to help me edit my MSs instead.

Thursday 23 February 2017

Just queried another agent too

Just queried another agent... I'm wondering if the rejection was a standard rejection or a personalised one though?

If it was a personalised one then I'm impressed that they got back to me so quickly and if it's a standard rejection then it's really well written one... best one so far!

Been rejected by another agent, so...

Just been rejected by Skylark so I'm going to send Toni to Antony Harwood instead now - this send out straight after a rejection is definitely helping me to cope better with the rejections!

Thursday 16 February 2017

Just been rejected by a publisher

I didn't realise until they rejected me that I sent totally the wrong MS - I sent Toni instead of a more educational one.

I'm totally OK with it... they are a purely an educational publisher and I write very little educational stuff so it wasn't unexpected and I'm totally OK with it.

I subbed to Skylark this morning, so I'm back to my self-imposed limit of 3 agents being queried at once, so I won't sub to anyone else until I get my next rejection  👍😃

Sunday 12 February 2017

Wot I've lernt

I used to think that my manuscripts were the best things ever written.  I didn't need to edit them because they were already perfect as they were.  I didn't need to be in a crit group because they couldn't be improved upon.

In short, I had mis-placed confidence in my manuscripts.

SCBWI has gently encouraged me to not be so precious about them and that editing really was worth doing.  They've encouraged me to join a crit group and to take the feedback on board - they've given me constructive crits instead of the put-downs I was dreading.

I've learnt from other people's writing and I've learnt how to improve my own writing by reading the feedback.

It's not cheap to join SCBWI, but it's so worth it within the first few months so I really don't mind paying the annual fee and I recommend it to anyone who will listen!

I've learnt about new agents and publishers as soon as they go public with their opening.

I'm one of the first to know about slushpile challenges and competitions and limited opening submissions.  I've learnt about agents and publishers to go with and when really big agents and publishers are open for a new author to take on.

I've learnt that it's OK to cry when you're rejected and I've learnt to submit to the next one on my spreadsheet as soon as I get the rejection email.

I've learnt that it's OK to admit that you aren't perfect and that you need help... everyone does at some point and SCBWI is the best place I've ever found to help to get you to be the best you can be.

If you write or illustrate for children, get thee to SCBWI and they will help you to be the best person you can be!

Saturday 11 February 2017

Just subbed Toni to a publisher

Just found out about a publisher wanting educational fiction without being preachy so I've subbed Toni's Flibble Wibble to ThunderStone Books because the entire trilogy is about bullying at school and I've put some Afrikaans in it too.

I've got other MSs that might fit them too, I just wanted to put my foot in the door as soon as I saw the message about it on SCBWI!

Tuesday 7 February 2017

Got Twitter on my author mobile now

Just put it on and logged in... hope it doesn't use too much bandwidth or it'll cost me a fortune this month!  lol