I'm on the rebound

I've agonised over whether to write this blog post for a while now. Firstly, it's an admission of failure, and secondly, I'm putting my novel out for submission again to other agents, and I'm not sure about the etiquette of all of this.


I think it's better to be upfront. I've always wanted this blog to be a record of this journey (even when I've desperately wanted to tear down old cringe-worthy posts). So here's a new post I can cringe over in the future ...


Back in 2017 I secured a literary agent for my young adult novel 'Repeat After Me' that I'd serialised on Wattpad. It was a major moment in my writing life. I felt as though I was set. This is it. This is the BIG TIME.


My literary agent was a dream. She was well-respected in the industry, she had a keen eye for detail and she appreciated my lyrical style of writing. She pushed me to make the book better - she guided me through three rewrites, she praised new passages and damned unnecessary shifts in the narrative. She encouraged me to rewrite the ending again and again and again.


At last she said the book was ready. We workshopped the blurb together, we finessed the synopsis, we retitled the novel to 'Overlooked Lane'. She began sending it off to her contacts.


In a few weeks we started getting responses. Over the duration of a year we were pretty much crossing off every publisher in the country.


Then one editor from a well-known publisher came back with pages of feedback that she wanted me to work further on. There was no commitment. But there was interest. And her suggestions were insightful. So I did the work. I resubmitted. I waited. I thought I was close. Very, very close.


Recently, that editor came back and said no as well. She had more comments. I could hardly read much past this one: 'your male character mansplains and this wouldn't go down well in the #metoo environment'.


Mansplaining didn't even exist when I wrote this novel. I was depicting Asten as a know it all. Don't we all know know it alls?!


So my agent has had to admit defeat. She can't place my book in the current Australian young adult market.


It feels like a break up with a significant other. I've been grieving this wonderful lady who mentored my work for the past few years.


Now I'm on the rebound. I'm desperately looking for a new agent overseas. I'm looking at agents' photos online and reading their profiles. I'm trying to find my new perfect match. I'm imagining someone edgy, who is building their list. They're probably brunette, they like unlikable characters and poetry and piccolo lattes. They think that Amanda Palmer's 'In my mind' is the greatest song on earth. They're open minded and know all about know it alls.


I might need to do some more work on myself first. But otherwise, I feel as though I'm ready to jump into a new agent-author relationship.


I've got my submission tracking Excel spreadsheet going again. And I'm trawling through my three favourite agent sites:


Association of Authors' Agents (UK) http://agentsassoc.co.uk/members-directory
Association of Authors' Representatives (US) http://aaronline.org/Find
Manuscript Wish List http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/


There's someone out there for everyone, right?



I'm Rowena. I'm an author and blogger. My novel The Replacement Wife is available as an ebook from HarperCollins, from $2.99. Luisa tries to find a wife for her husband so she can exit an unhappy marriage happily.

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