I'm inspired to blog the end and the beginning of something ... the end of the writing process, the beginning of the process one hopes will end in publication of the book. Dark Is the Valley has been a long process, from the idea to the writing (140,000 words) to the editing (a four month job), and then the month-long struggle to generate a couple of synopses which are, I hope, dynamic enough to catch the attention of literary agents and, in turn, publishers...
It isn't enough, by a long shot, to simply write a good book. You have to sell the book too. When you realise you're up against ten thousand other writers, some of whom are very good indeed, and all of whom are trying to to achieve the same thing ... well, it's daunting. So I worked as long and hard on four pages' worth of synopses (a one, and a three) as on any part of the book itself -- and probably harder! Now, let's see if what I've done will get me over the first hurdle of agency representation.
The reason I'm using tourism photos of Shropshire to illustrate this post? The book is set in a Shropshire valley, on the craggier part, toward the west, where Wales isn't far away. It was enormous fun to write, but it won't get any better for sitting here staring at the manuscript! It's time to get it out there and see if we can find a publisher. First step: agent. The process begins today.
