Back to square one

After a five month wait I received news today that an agent has decided not to represent my novel ‘Saving Siobhan.’ Like the The Rule Book, this is a novel that won’t fall over the second hurdle. Of the ten or so agents I've sent this to, about half have asked to see the whole manuscript. After a few months delay they then then tell me that crime fiction is an incredibly tough market and they’re not quite sure it’s for them. For example, from this morning’s email: ‘I like many things about this novel: the quick pace, the natural dialogue, the humour. However, today's crime fiction market is incredibly tough …’ The trouble with Saving Siobhan, according to the agents, is it’s either too niche to gain enough sales or too mainstream that it’ll disappear in the pack! I was hoping for somewhere in the middle – mainstream but enough of a twist to make it distinctive.

The thing that I think I find most frustrating in these cases is not that the piece has been rejected, but that the process wasted so much time. At least a fall at the first hurdle only takes a couple of weeks, six at the most. It typically takes four to six months for a second hurdle decision, during which time it’s not possible to send the script to another agent. I wasted a couple of years doing this with The Rule Book. I was going to spend part of the Christmas break writing fiction, but this has taken the wind out of my sails. Oh well, time to hunt out the Writer’s Handbook and see who to hassle next.