Rejection letters.

I got my latest rejection letter this morning. I'd had a really positive message last night from someone who's reading the book and then the postman arrived this morning. I heard the loud thud of my manuscript hitting the hall floor and guessed before I went to retrieve it that it would be my self-addressed envelope containing the first three chapters, pitch letter and summaries of the other chapters of "Martha's Vineyard". So it was but it also contained a standard form letter from the agent,

"Dear Neil Griffin," ( that is handwritten the rest apart from a squiggle at the bottom was a standard typed response)

"Thank you for your recent submission which we have considered with care. I fear we do not feel able to offer the representation you seek. We wish you every good fortune with your work in the future."

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a crushing blow or anything, I mean there are a million worse things happening to millions of people as we speak but it always a little disappointing. Anyway I'm anticipating a large collection of rejection letters before I find an agent to represent the book, (that accounts for the blog really) and at least they'd had the decency to turn it around in three weeks but I do wonder what it is they "fear". Have they been stalked by rejected writers in the past or are they just naturally timid? It seems ironic that people with such influence in the publishing industry were terrorised by my submission. Rather than feeling angry at the rejection I feel guilty about frightening them so!
My initial reaction was anger of course. Nobody likes rejection do they? "What do they know? Everyone who's read it has really enjoyed it, even people who don't know me, why aren't they interested?" But I suppose one must be sympathetic in the end; they get a lot of manuscripts and there are so many variables, what time they pick your submission from the pile, how many they are already considering, what mood they are in when they pick yours up, Monday morning Friday afternoon syndrome and as I have often said sending off a submission is always an act of hope over expectation. Never mind, I'm still only on agencies beginning with "A" and there are plenty more on the list before I get on to the rest of the alphabet. And so I'm off to the post office as I want to catch the lunch-time post. See Ya!

Bloody Statcounter!

I'm starting to wish I'd never installed the bloody statcounter! If it is to be believed then all my attempts to attract traffic have been in vain. There are a pitifully small number of visitors these days and those I do get don't seem to stay. I am also concerned that I might be frightening people off by making my blog something of a soapbox, or is there such a thing as a blogbox? Maybe people don't want to be bothered with my rantings about whatever appears to have gotten my "knickers in a twist" on any particular day. Maybe I should try and be more disciplined and restrict my posts to the progress of my attempts to direct people to take an interest in my novel but I'm not sure that would be any better, I'd only go off on another rant about the publishing industry or suchlike.
However all is not lost. As an antidote to my depression about lack of visitors and interest in my perambulations I've entered a bit of spice into the proceedings. I've started up another blog to go into competition with my marketingmynovel site. This one is simply a photographic journey around County Durham, where I live. I've put it out here and I'm going to promote both with the same amount of effort. An experiment in what might interest surfers. The competition between the two will add a little interest to my daily disappointment at reading the bloody statcounter. At least there'll be some competition. The new blog is http://beautifulcountydurham.blogspot.com/ let's see what happens shall we? If there's anybody out there.
Mind you, none of this is getting my second, bloody novel written!

Need I say more?

Woke this morning to the news informing me that cannabis users can be up to three times more likely to develop a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia. This in a week when at least nine members of Gordon Brown's new cabinet, the nerve centre of British politics, admitted smoking cannabis while at University. There are 23 members of the cabinet which means nearly half of them collapse firmly into into the cannabis-user zone. When the news about their youthful indiscretions first broke I thought it kind of humanised them, made them more interesting, more in touch with the rest of society. I also expected some really interesting new legislation, new laws encouraging us to take more time to smell the flowers, or policies suggesting we stay up late eating cold beans from the tin while listening to the Floyd very loud but no! Instead it has served as a preamble to a tightening up stance on cannabis. You'd think it would have taught them something wouldn't you? Instead it seems to have turned them all into zealots. Despite the dangers, (and to be honest I'm more worried about the tobacco than the dope) young people who want will still get access to cannabis and a host of other nasty and dangerous substances just as those cabinet members did in their day but instead of the radical approach of having the nerve to make it licenced and controlled by the state it will continue to be supplied, to those who want it, by gangsters and criminals. It will mean that in order to get it they will need to mix with pushers and dealers I would have thought that was fairly dangerous. I know young people don't have to use cannabis, in fact they probably shouldn't but if they want to they will and maybe those who confessed last week should remember who they used to be. That might help them to think of strategies to help all young people, not just those who use cannabis, to learn from the mistakes they are bound to make rather than this hypocritical and hysterical preaching. There again maybe they are all psychotic.

Nothing much happening.

The purpose of this blog, when I was inspired to start it by my friend http://catcalls13.blogspot.com, was to create a "whispering" campaign about my novel. A way of getting it talked about while I look for a literary agent. I even fantasised about it getting talked about in the circles that literary agents move in, "Hey Tarquin, have you heard about this guy who's written a novel and is blogging about it?" " No I haven't Lance is it any good?" " I believe so, it's about a young teacher who inherits a villa from his aunt and goes off to live on the Greek mainland where he discovers some dark secrets about the past." "Oh bloody good show!"
I am naive enough to think I was the first person to think of it but hey!
Using the power of the net, I would engage visitors to my blog with charming posts and they would immediately click over to my contents page at http://lulu.com/content/607829 to buy or download the book. To be honest that hasn't really happened yet. It's true I am getting visitors to my blog, a healthy number, from all over the world, in fact but they don't seem to stay for very long according to my statcounter and as a consequence presumably don't read it and therefore don't realise that they are supposed to go to my Lulu content page and get access to the book.
To be fair I'm sure they all have busy lives and are probably frantically trying to "build their downlines" for some Internet money-making scheme or scam (it's a whole new world with it's own vernacular out here in the blogoshere).
As a result I am beginning to have a strategy crisis and associated rethink. Maybe I need a downline.
What larks!

Blogosphere

Apparently there's such a thing as the blogosphere. I discovered it since I've started to investigate sites that promise to send "targeted traffic to your website","see your traffic explode!" etc. It is true and it does work but in order to gain credits to invite fellow surfers to your blog you have to visit loads of other websites, most of which seem to want you to sign up to schemes that will earn you a fortune by not doing anything. Not many of my fellow surfers are going to be interested in my novel if they are so busy trying to make a mint out of the ether. Make money from leaving your PC on overnight, turn your computer into an atm or advertise to millions on the blogosphere. I can see how it is easy to be seduced into thinking that there is a fortune just waiting for you somewhere in cyberspace but it's not very likely is it? I wonder if it's just a handful of people around the globe clicking on each others websites 24 hours a day.
There are some exceptions; the odd site with wonderful photos or some people who'd been up all night reading the final Harry Potter book and the occasional author in a similar position to my own. I've surfed about four or five hundred sites but only about 3 0r 4 percent of them have been about something other than money.
I did discover something of interest though. Someone offering to take writers on a virtual book tour. They offer to do it for you but it costs an arm and a leg and so I intend to discover how to do it myself for free. Watch this space!

Displacement activity

I am starting to wonder if blogging is the perfect displacement activity for the aspiring novelist. If I'm anything to go by it certainly is. I mean, I joined the blogging community a fortnight ago and instead of publishing posts detailing my anguished attempts to propel my novel, "Martha's Vineyard" into superhighway limelight, I appear to have, on reflection, begun to use my blog as a bit of a "ranting" ground. I just had a look at what I posted on Sunday and I had a "pop" at Big Brother, Tony Blair, the BBC and Alistair Campbell for starters. None of these having anything remotely to do with my story of a young English Teacher's journey to Greece to discover the secrets of a mysterious aunt's vineyard.
My friend and fellow blogger Ms Catcalls did warn me that blogging can be contagious, addictive even and I fear she is right. I now spend as much time thinking about my blog than I do about my next writing project. The "difficult" second novel.
I suppose one's blog is the perfect place to have a "rant" mind you! In an attempt to encourage people to visit my site I've visited quite a few blogs randomly over the past few weeks and there are a lot of angry people out here aren't there? The Internet, it appears is a "ranters" paradise. Not surprising really, there's a lot to be angry about. There's Big Brother, Tony Blair, the BBC and Alistair Campbell to begin with but don't get me started on them.

A Summer's Sunday Stroll July 2007

Hilbre Island