I am delighted, relieved and excited to announce Route liked the second edit of This is all I Know. I was pretty ruthless with it, taking it from a story set over four seasons to one split into three parts. There will be more carnage to follow. It was very interesting to hear Ian Daley’s comments and his synopsis of the book. Although you have intentions when writing a novel, often people pick up on other aspects or point out elements which you did not always consider. This isn’t to say those thoughts weren’t there, they were just vying for attention with the nine million other ideas. It’s a curious process having someone dissect your work, a bit like someone discussing your sexual prowess or similarly embarrassing scenario. Anyway, there is more work to be done and I hope to meet up with Ian over the next few months. This book must be my priority having worked on it for so long on it. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait. Hopefully, soon it will be real.

I had a manuscript entitled ‘This is all I Know’ accepted for publication with Pomona in 2002. Over the next three years it kept getting pushed back further down the line. The reason for this was often fair but frustrating e.g. ‘We need to build up our reputation more before we publish a first time novelist’ – consequently other books jumped the queue such as Barry Hines etc, ‘We need a new distributor as we are having trouble getting our books in the shops’. Eventually the head of Pomona, Mark Hodkinson, declared that the publishing industry was a depressing cut throat business and he was winding it up. This was fair enough as a small press barely has little opportunity of getting books into major stores where as large corporations can mass produce and swamp the market with low priced offerings to retailers. This is the story of capitalism the world over and so no surprises there.

From this I would offer the following advice to other writers. 1) Shit happens, get over it. 2) If your book keeps getting put back, keep an eye out for other publishers/agents and move on 3) Don’t tell anyone you are having something published until you physically have a copy in your hand or else your mates will think you are a bullshitter. 4) Increasingly marketing is becoming more important than the actual writing. Therefore, I would consider thinking of avenues though which your work may be reviewed, contexts through which it could be placed, audiences and situations it may appeal to. The more of these you can offer, the more appealing your work will become. It’s soul destroying, but let’s be real; never forget the nature of the beast…

I hope that none of this comes across as bitter as it is certainly not intended this way. I truly believe Pomona had good intentions, but these don’t have much sway I’m afraid in a commercial and profit geared environment. Consequently, I have reread my original manuscript and trimmed it down by 40,000 words to 130,000 and sent it off to Route for a ‘first novel’ opportunity they advertised. They may ignore it, they may accept it and then put it on the shelf for a couple of years, or they may give it a shot. Either way, this time I will keep my mouth shut and remember in the grand scale of things it hardly matters what ever happens. This, from experience, is the only way to retain your sanity in the publishing industry.

So long and all the best…