Faiqa Mansab's Blog: What I'm Thinking Today - Posts Tagged "diverse-characters"

Yes, it makes a difference. Being published by Penguin Random House India makes the change from writer to published author even more significant. I have an MFA in creative writing from Kingston University London. I also won an award for This House of Clay and Water from the university.
I put in the years into life and its vicissitudes before I took myself seriously enough to write a novel because I am asking someone to invest their time and money in my book. I do not take my task lightly. I am an author. Many of them have saved me, entertained me, made me love, laugh, hate and cry over the years. I know the power an author wields and i have a great deal of respect for this job. But even more than that is my respect for the reader who spends their hard-earned money on something that I created. I don't want to disappoint my readers.
However, having said that, I must clarify that I know that I will disappoint a few people. No one can get universal approval, least of all writers. So to those of you who will not write this novel, i can only say that perhaps we don't speak the same language. And please, I don't mean English.
I submitted this novel to 85 agents in UK and US and to 2 agents in India. The majority of the responses began with 'I love this novel but...' except for one agent in India. I have many people to thank who helped me on my journey to getting published.
I'll start by thanking Mita Kapur, my agent at http://siyahi.in/ without whom this journey wouldn't have been much more arduous, perhaps impossible. She believed in my book first. Then there's Ranjana Sengupta at https://penguin.co.in/ who loved it enough to publish it.
I am writing this for all those writers who are still struggling and haven't found the right agent or publisher. I'm telling you my story to reassure you that if I can do it, so can you. Believe in yourself, and your art, your story, and keep trying. One day you too will be published. Best of Luck!