I've been away from blogging for a while, but I'm now hoping to get back to it more regularly. Apologies to anyone who follows on a regular basis, and thank you for sticking with me.
There were a couple of reasons for the break, and I didn't intend to stop blogging, it just sort of happened. At the beginning of the year, I got the contract through for a non fiction self help book. It needed a fair amount of research and I was headlong into this. I got the research done and started actually putting the book together. I was two thirds through when I thought I'd contact the publisher just to check that everything was good in publishing land. His reply was less than enthusiastic and he wasn't even bothered about me finishing it if I didn't want to. It appeared that there wouldn't be any promotion done, despite what had been agreed previously.
In the circumstances, I felt that the best thing to do would be to walk away. I got a confirmation in writing that the contract was no longer valid and that all the work I had done was mine and there could be no claim on it if I were to publish elsewhere.
I'm sure you can understand how much of a disappointment this was. Especially as this is the second time I have found myself in a similar situation - a fact this publisher knew. I lost the enthusiasm for the project and, to be honest, writing. It seemed that I had just wasted six months and felt very let down. Just putting the whole thing aside for a while seemed the best option.
I haven't decided exactly what to do about that project yet. I may look for a new publisher or I may self publish. At the moment, I still don't have the enthusiasm back for that one, so I'll wait until I do and in the meantime I can just ponder over what I what I want to do with it.
I am back to writing though, well, editing. I've pulled out a novel which has been waiting for a new edit and some rewrites for a long time. I've really enjoyed getting into the story and the characters again. I enquired with a publisher some time ago about sending it in (as it's a little shorter than the standard) and they were happy to take a look. I'll check this again when it's closer to being polished and shiny. Hopefully the answer will still be 'send it in'. After that, it'll just be a case of fingers crossed!
So, again, apologies for the break. I hope your writing has been going well and would love to hear your news!
Happy Writing!
