So I wrote a book. I’m sure I’ll bore you with a great more detail about it at some point. I always intended to try and get it published and apparently you do that by sending off to literary agents in the hope that one of them will see a money making opportunity and take it on.
I fully intended to send off to at least three agents per week until I found one willing to take a punt on my masterpiece. So far I have sent it to four, but that was six months ago, so I’m a little behind schedule.
Anyway, today I got a rejection email from a literary agent that I’d submitted my book to back in May. No big deal, I expect I’ll get lots before giving up. The rejection isn’t a terrible turn of phrase, it even says it was an enjoyable read. Given that it’s taken them six months to reply, I choose to believe that it was actually read by someone rather than it just being a stock rejection message.
Dear Kevin ,
Thanks very much for your submission, which I’ve enjoyed reading. Unfortunately, however, I don’t think I would be the right agent to take this any further. I am sorry to disappoint but thank you for thinking of me in connection with your work.
Best wishes
Sara
Sara Langham (she/ her)
David Higham Associates
[Literary, Film & TV Agents]
What surprised me; and I guess it’s a sign of my age (64 in a few weeks), was the fact that Sara feels the need to share her preferred pronoun ‘she/her’. Is this now a legal requirement? Has this somehow passed me by? Do I have to put ‘he, him’ after my name? Strange times indeed when someone called Sara needs to clarify that he/she/they/it should be referred to as a female. Of course I don’t know whether Sara has always been a ‘she’, or that he/she/it, has always been called Sara, maybe they were Dave or John at some point in a complicated life but if we have reached the point where names are no longer gender specific then naming babies is going to be a right laugh.
2 responses to “2nd October ’23 – WTF?”
of course like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very troublesome to inform the reality on the other hand I will certainly come back again.
Hi Ahmad,
I don’t like spelling mistakes either. I’d be more than happy to correct them if you could tell me what they are. I don’t don’t know where you are from but I’m guessing English isn’t your first language, if your English comes from America then I’m afraid it’s them that don’t know how to spell. The Pilgrim Fathers set foot on the continent and discovered they had forgotten to pack an English dictionary, so decided to make their own.