Life as an unpublished author, take two

As far as I can tell, there’s no “typical reader” of this blog. Some of you are fans of the Ashley Arthur or Agent Six books. Others are just wandering folks who enjoy humour, philosophy, or pseudo-political rambling. Several of you are my friends and family. Hi Paul.

But one thing I do know is that many of you are aspiring writers. This is an audience I don’t cater to often, perhaps because dishing out writing advice feels too much like work, or perhaps because my road to publication was so unusual that not much can be learned from it. (I posted The Lab to just one publisher, unsolicited, as a 17-year old boy without an agent. It got published internationally. Very few authors are that lucky.)

However, I’ve found myself with a rare opportunity. After almost three years of work, I’ve finally finished writing my first crime novel for adults. After my usual celebration (playing video games in my pyjamas for a full day) I submitted it to my agent. And now, I’m going to document the rest of the publication process on this blog.

It’s my hope that this will be useful to unpublished authors, because most of my advantages have been stripped away. For the first time in six years, I don’t have a contract, nor a publisher angling for one. My established audience won’t make it any easier to sell the manuscript, since I’ve never written in this genre or for this market. All I have is a book, my wits (what little remained after the video games) and a damn good agent.

When I hear back from her, I’ll let you know what she says. Thanks for joining me on this journey.



MITIFOTIT: (Most Interesting Thing I Found On The Internet Today)

Sometimes people ask me what kind of music I listen to while I write. It’s this: