Beads of Submission - Signing with an Agent!

 

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about my endeavour to receive one hundred rejection in 2024, and in order to a have a constant visual display of my progress I was putting beads in a jar. A blue bead for every submission, and a pink bead for every full manuscript request, long-listing or short-listing etc. By the point of posting, I’d already added my first pink bead.

There is great news the pink bead has changed into a special bead made of actual mammoth bone. Why? I am delighted to say I’ve signed on Lauren Gardner and her assistant Callen Martin of Bell Lomax Moreton, with my mammoth book!

 

However, looking at my jar, it looks wrong, as it only has a bead for every submission I’ve made with this manuscript in 2024, which is misleading as I’ve been subbing this book in previous years. So I went back to my spread sheet to tally up the real submission statics and therefore added them to the jar.

 

Ashley Grimes Mammoth Whisperer in all its forms, has been subbed 42 times and received 6 full manuscript requests and I offer.

 

In addition, it was subbed to 15 competitions, and not so much as a long-listing or honorary mention.

But this is still only part of the story, as I started writing when my youngest was coming up to his first birthday – he is now driving and sitting his a-levels! So, to get to this point I’ve written 8 (completed) novels, I novella, I chapter book and countless picture books, all of which have been subbed and therefore I have a massed a huge pile of rejections. I haven’t tallied all these up, as counting isn’t my strong suit (dyscalculia), but I am delighted to have reached this milestone.

I am very much looking forward to working with Lauren and Callen.

Submission Impossible? 100 Rejections in a Year!

I’ve made the decision that this year 2024, I’m really going to knuckle down and submit like I have never submitted before. In the past I’ve always approached my submission process with a tad less dedication than the writing itself. After spending hours (far too many to calculate) researching, plotting, world building, writing, revising and editing, (and repeating several times over), the submission always start with an enthusiastic flourish and then after a first dozen and half of rejections, I lose confidence, and everything just peters out.

This year though, I believe my manuscript is in really good shape, and the feedback from peers and professional has been encouraging, so my aim is to be more tenacious in 2024. With that in mind I have set myself the target of receiving 100 rejections before we next sing Auld Lang Syne.

 

To achieve this, I’ve built in dedicated time in my weekly schedule and have implemented some measures to visually show progress. In addition to my spreadsheet, I’ve got a glass vase and some crystal beads. With every submission I will add a blue (stripped agate) bead to the vase, and with every full manuscript request, long-listing, short-listing or honorary mention, I will add a pink (tigers eye) bead to the vase. This will mean that I will see the vase gradually filling up throughout the year.

I am hoping that having this visual tactile log of my progress will also serve as a stimulus to keep me motivated and continue the endeavour of reaching my target.

If by a miracle I get signed along the way I will think of a something extra special to add to the vase.

 

**Edit** since initially writing this I’ve added my first pink bead! Fingers crossed!

Move over NaNoWriMo, here comes NaNoSubMo!

It’s November. That means one thing in the writing world, NaNoWriMo! National Novel Writing Month, where you commit, alongside thousands of other writers across the globe, to pen a novel in 30 days, by completing 2000 words every day. It’s a staple of the literary calendar and in many of the previous years has helped me out of a writing rut and got my creative juices flowing.

One year I started and completed a novel in NaNoWriMo and subbed it to The Chicken House and got on the longlist! It works ~ (or at least for me).

 

This year however I’m struggling with life throwing a whole load of hurdles at me from every direction, including a massive dose of brain fog. I haven’t subbed either of my completed manuscripts at all. So thinking outside the NaNOWriMo box, I’m creating my own version.

NaNoSubMo.

I intend on submitting my manuscript to one agent/editor every day for the entire month. I’m hoping this will be as successful as the traditional NaNoWriMo has been for me in year past. That it will force me to push the brain fog aside, focus my mind, and to embrace this part of the writing process which is my least favourite. To get me back on a more proactive submission course.

 

So wish me luck and wish luck to all of you that are participating in NaNoWriMo!

Am I getting worse? Or, is everyone else getting better? Or BOTH? A pre-published writer’s battle with self-confidence & imposter syndrome.

I love writing. I write most days, and when I’m not writing – I’m thinking about writing; mulling over stories in my mine – practising dialogue by talking to myself, observing life – soaking everything up as you never know what will one day be useful. 

Most of the time I’m an optimist – always thinking my writing is improving – celebrating every little achievement – and telling myself that if I keep going – keeping improving that with a bit of luck one day I’ll get published. But then occasionally my optimism is pushed aside by my darker pessimistic side. The one that tells me all is hopeless. That is highly competitive – and with my extra difficulties with dyslexia that I’ll never make it. 

Like many pre-published writers these bouts of lost-confidence and diminishing hope rears its head after competition long-lists have been announced – and I didn’t make the cut. What makes long-listing announcement bad for me is that when I was starting out – my hit rate was good. At one time I had made the long-list/short-list or won every competition I had submitted too. Now a few years later – after honing my craft with courses and writing academies, my hit rate has dwindled. So after every competition long-list I miss - my pessimistic size sizes control – and I spiral, asking myself questions… 

• Am I getting worse?
• Is everyone else getting better?
•  Is my rougher first draft MS better than my polished ones?
• Is my writing gone out of style?
• Has my dyslexia gotten worse?
• Is it yet another spectacular bad case of unfortunate timing?
• That I’m an imposter – as one of the only members of the SCBWI Oxford Critique group I was in that is still activity writing and not be published or agented - that I’m not good enough to be here, 

In the past I’ve tried ignoring my pessimistic side – but it never works, instead it sits festering and feeding on my hope. So now I know I have to indulge it. Let it play its course. Lick my wounds, re-galvanise myself and carry on. 

At this point, my optimism bounces back in reassuring me that… 

• I’m getting better
• That more people are writing now – and getting support from MA’s, Manuscript appraisal schemes and writing academies.
• That my dyslexia hasn’t got worse, it’s improving but there is just more competition out there.
• That Time isn’t a thing I can control – and Time trips everybody up at one point or another.
• As for imposter syndrome - I have to remind myself that many of my published friends having been writing far longer than me – and were writing much longer than I have been before landing a contract.

And so I pick myself up and carry on. After all I love writing and to quote someone far wiser than me...