I\u2019ve been in the novel game for over twenty years now and let me tell you \u2013 times are tough. New writers and veterans alike are saying the same, whether they\u2019re meeting for real-life lattes or virtual hugs: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s never felt quite this brutal.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hooky new pitches get ignored, deals take months to finalise or are withdrawn at the last moment, publication and payments are delayed. And, worst of all, everyone seems to be ghosting each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet\u2026 and yet, the knockout deals are still being done \u2013 and often it\u2019s the debut writers, with no patchy sales records to put off agents or publishers \u2013 who are hitting the book trade headlines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But how many talented writers give up before getting to the deal stage, because the silence has ground them down? Or hear from friends about how tough it is, and decide not to submit at all? <\/p>\n\n\n\n And how do you hold onto the passion that first drove you to write? As someone who has faced this as an author myself \u2013 and helped many writers to overcome the hurdles to get published, here are my GHOSTS golden rules for overcoming rejection (and its even meaner cousin, total indifference).<\/p>\n\n\n\n if you reward yourself for taking more steps or eating more veg, approach querying in the same way. Focus not on finding the dream agent \u2013 who might be busy, or ill, or just plain rude \u2013 but on the numbers. Imagine there\u2019s an app (maybe you want to make one) giving you rewards at 10, 50, 100 rejections \u2013 work out what the rewards are and look forward to reaching each milestone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ghosting is not about you. Zoom out and you\u2019ll be able to see the context here \u2013 fewer editors are handling more books so they\u2019re under more pressure. Even the best agents are being ghosted themselves. Concerns about AI, book piracy and shrinking profits make the snail-like publishing world even more glacial.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experienced authors like me \u2013 I was first published in 2003 \u2013 have seen how a previously polite industry doesn\u2019t have time for \u2018good\u2019 manners. Maybe that\u2019s a good thing, maybe not. But as authors we have to adapt our mindset to keep our sanity. Part of that is about keeping informed about the industry \u2013 knowledge is power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Obsess about your work, not their response (or lack of it): you can\u2019t control their reactions, any more than you can persuade someone to date you if they don\u2019t feel that spark. But what you can do is present yourself and your query in the most captivating way possible. So every time you do a new pitch, aim to improve the hook, or ensure the opening chapters are designed to make the reader \u2013 in this case, your potential agent \u2013 need <\/em>to know what happens next. Obsess over everything from the email subject \u2013 and whether your book\u2019s title could be even stronger \u2013 to the comps and sign-off.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nGamify<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Helicopter view<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Obsess <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n