Intrusion Book Tour – My Publishing Journey as a Debut Novelist – Mary McCluskey

I chose journalism as a career, wrote bad poetry secretly, and plugged away at a novel on evenings and weekends. The first attempt reached 90 pages before I abandoned it, the second I finished but the completed novel was hopelessly dark and unredeemable. I started a third and also experimented with short stories. I had some success with those but the novel kept demanding my time and attention like an insistent toddler and finally, after two drastic revisions, I finished it and faced the next hurdle – finding an agent.

[amazon_link id=”1511358777″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]This is just as hard as everyone says it is. Harder. It takes patience, persistence and the constant polishing of the query letter. I know that writers’ conference help some writers meet agents but I persisted with the query letter and eventually found an agent who liked my writing. Unfortunately, she had a different vision of what my novel should be. She suggested that I added material, a subplot I found sentimental and sappy and we wound up finally with a novel neither of us liked much. We separated amicably and I stripped the novel back to its bare bones and began again. When it was done, I started again the dispiriting process of finding an agent. Luckily, I found Julia, my present agent who loved my novel and she suggested revisions but her ideas were in synch with my own and finally she sent it out. When the offer came from little A we celebrated by phone at 3 in the morning.

What did I learn? Persistence is everything. Don’t give up. Listen to ideas for revision but if they don’t feel right or comfortable or fit your vision of the story, stick to your guns. It’s your work.