Nine years ago I was full of hope for reaching a milestone in my life. I had written a great political thriller and Harper Collins in London were interested. They read it and liked it and asked me to deliver the full MS. I then waited six months and was told,' sorry, our list of authors for that genre is full at the moment.'
I have never had a bad letter from an agent. I even got told by one agent (I may write to her again) that the only reason she couldn't take me on was because she was to busy. 'Love the work, Raymond, but...'
For the past three years I have written another political thriller, 'Written In Stone'. This one is being edited (not that the other one wasn't) by The Story Mint and I have high hopes that this time I will get published. But what about the one that got no where? And what about the other two that have not even seen the light of day?
My editor gave me some very good advice. Be careful if you are thinking of publishing anything written before your latest work. Readers will judge you by the first novel they read with your name on it.
I am not the kind to give in but I do understand 'that' red flag. I just don't like the idea of working three years on a project and then shoving it up on a shelf to gather dust. So what do you do? I have decided to take the novel, 'The Trojan Towers', and credit it with a pen name, Dawson Strange. Oh sure, you know that but does the rest of the world? I don't think there will be to many people searching through the thousands of books on Amazon to buy my novel. But here's my point - even if one person buys it and enjoys it, I have acheived a great success. Someone out there, that I don't know, has been entertained by my storytelling.
That's a lot better than filing it under 'loser'.
There are four novels written so far and another being outlined and researched at the moment. I have some short childhood stories being put together and sent to public radio. I am working with my editor to finish my latest novel. I'm busy, but I refuse to leave the previous unpublished work on the shelf. If the quality and editing standard are acceptable, I'm looking for that one reader I can entertain. When he or she buys a copy, I'll breathe a sigh of releif and move on to the next one. I refuse to have a slush pile in my office.
Of course, if an agent or publisher comes along and falls in love with my E published work I can always take it off the listings - but I don't think I'll change the name of the author. Dawson Strange sounds like a good name to me.
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