Blog | Alison Morton Author

Musings on my first rejection letter

I arrived back from my holiday and found my first rejection on the doormat. It was a polite letter, but a standard, non-personalised one. Of course, I was disappointed (swallows hard and sobs), but I feel I have passed a milestone, lost my publishing virginity, joined the ‘normal’ throng of writers.

Of course, I sent off to another agent straight away. It’s a reflex from many years of running a small business – when a contract pitch doesn’t work, you get on and contact the next company on your selected list of leads.

Perhaps it also goes back to when as a child I fell over and after a brief hug, and a wipe of the knee, from my mother I brushed the tears away, got up and ran off playing again. I was soon back laughing and shrieking with my friends, having completely forgotten the earlier fall.

So, Pollyanna-ish, I wait to hear from the next agent…

Translating – don’t you just press a button on the computer?

Maybe not strictly a creative writing matter, but when fellow writers ask me about my previous life and I say I was a translator for over 20 years,they seem interested to learn more.

The main thing I tell them is about quality. Google’s great for getting the bare bones out of something, but if you want a professional job, you need a human being.

You really do.

If I had a pound/euro for everytime I’ve heard a version of this article’s title, I’d have a private villa on the Côte d’Azur with built-in staff by now.

Proper translators train over approx 5-7 years. They have a first degree in languages or translation & interpreting, plus a post-grad qualification e.g. the CIOL Diploma in Translation (DipTrans) or MA, plus they are full, qualified members of either the Chartered Institute of Linguists (thus MCIL after their name) and/or the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (thus MITI).

Now like all professional qualifications, this doesn’t guarantee anything, but clients can be assured the translator has been put through a rigorous training programme and professional assessment,they meet accredited competence standards and are subject to a code of conduct.

Oh, and proper translators only ever translate into their mother-tongue. I still translate, working from French into English. but I have French partners who work into French, one of whom is a sworn translator for a French court.

Okay, rant over.

Of course, I’d love to carry out translations for you :-), but mainly, I wanted to de-bug some of the myths and misinformation. I ran a translation company for many years, so know a lot of people translating all sorts of languages, so do contact me for their details (See About & Contact page for email).

Tightening and shaving…

I’m editing the second part of my trilogy and it’s causing some blushes of embarrassment. No, not the romantic scenes, but the proliferation of bland and/or superfluous words.

However did I include so many ‘just’s, ‘I wondered’s, ‘I thought’s, ‘suddenly’s and ‘Well,..’s?
Well, I thought I’d just bash the story out, then suddenly I wondered if it didn’t need a second look. 🙂

My special little target for this excercise is ‘then’.’He did x, then he did ‘y’. Very occasionally, I’ve relented and left it in, but almost every one has been exterminated (as per the Daleks). My laser-like eye has had no pity. The ‘then’s have been put through a process similar to the Star Chamber, then led out to execution.

The more difficult thing is re-working other characters’ interactions with my protagonist. The point of view is first person and she needs to be incredibly observant(!), but I must avoid her saying ‘I saw his eyes show interest.’ and switch it round to ‘His grey eyes showed a flicker of interest.’ The thing to watch here, though, is to make sure she stays prominent in the reader’s eye and mind and is not merely warbling on about everything she sees externally to the detriment of describing her internal conflict.

Ho, hum!

Now to anihilate the ‘just’s…

(Gah! Just noticed the date. This is not a spoof post. Really)

First submission made!

Yes, I’ve got my synopsis, three chapters with a (fabulous!) letter out to an agent. It’s quite emotional, letting the A4 envelope disappear into into the postbox slot and hearing the ‘thunk’ as it hits the bottom of the cage inside. At that stage, my first thought was ‘Oh, God, the postbox is empty – I’ve missed the post’ but I hadn’t. My brain, through my eyes, reminded me it was only 11.45 am. Even in English villages, the last collection isn’t until the afternoon…

What did I do next? Went home and had a glass of red.

That evening, I banished all thoughts of manuscripts, synopses, slaving over a hot keyboard. My OH and I loaded up the car and fled to France for a few days, which is where I am typing this post.

I understand I won’t hear for several weeks, especially as the London Book Fair is approaching. I might start getting a little nervy around mid-May and hope I’ll be grown up enough not to phone up until the end of May.

Well, I have Part Deux of my trilogy to edit/polish up, so in between the wine, cheese and milder weather, I’ll content myself with working on that.

(But I still think it’s exciting…)

Sweating over my cover letter to agents…

It’s a cliché, but it’s damn right! The business of getting an agent, getting your book published and sold is definitely as hard, if not harder, as writing the novel in the first place. Similar to when you’re pregnant. You think being pregnant is bad (sickness, lassitude, ruined feet, stretch marks, galloping appetite, pan-galactic weight gain), but once the dear delight is born, you will be slogging away at a level you thought had been left in Victorian sweatshops.

One thing I’ve learnt that is crucial. You must do your research before you put one finger on the keyboard.

1. Know what sort of a book you’ve written (sounds obvious, but it isn’t always);
2. Find out which agents deal with your genre/type (Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, Association of Authors’ Agents, etc.);
3. Try and find the agent within a big company that deals specifically with your sort of book;
4. Read up about them on their website, the internet in general;
5. If you have any writing friends, ask their opinion.

As for the letter, there are gazillions of websites and books giving advice about being focused, businesslike and informative, but something that’s struck me as essential is some marketing advice I heard a few years ago at a business seminar from a very respected marketing guru: BE NICE!

I’m not being sycophantic ;-), just practical. Agents want books, too. No books, no business. So basically, they’re a team member in your enterprise of getting your book to the reader and it’s bad work practice to be rude to your fellow team members.