I have a dilemma

Hearing that a publisher or agent would have taken you on a few years ago when publishing was a different place, is much better than hearing that they wouldn’t have taken you on then and certainly wouldn’t give you so much as a fleeting consideration now. However, after a few times of hearing this poisoned chalice of a sentence, the voices which knock on the side of my head and ask if anyone is home, are getting louder, even in my ears, known to be a little hearing-challenged.

We are having to be more choosy, cry the publishers which means the agents are too. When book lists are being slashed, a polished copy is going to fare better than something with promise. There are publishers out there who are desperate to take on and nurture a first time author, just as in the old days. I am holding out for a response from one such publisher who sounds so devoted to people like me, and so professional in a tremendously 'tactile' way, that the waiting is painful. But nonetheless, the voices are suggesting that generally, a professional edit could be the difference between my first novel being published, and thus read by a few more people than simply me and my trusted readers, and languishing in the, At least-I-Had-Fun-Writing-It pile. 

I always suggest that we keep moving when playing the submission game because waiting around will only lead to a depressed state of rigor mortis. Just as a watched kettle never boils, neither does the email land if you click send/receive more than ten times in an hour. Although, I admit to continued, extensive investigation into this one.

So, heeding my own advice, off I trot to do some research into professional editing. The company which I decide is the most impressive, is, of course, one of the most expensive options. However, this is a group who use only published authors and who have answered all my questions personally and in great detail which would bode well for the service to come. 


I have the money for the editing in my piggy bank but my head has been turned by a course-cum-retreat.


The last time I went on a week long course I wrote 5,000 words of a book that was not even a gem of an idea before my arrival; that book became Glass Houses. There I met my fantastic writing buddy who has become a friend as well as a mentor. Oh, and as soon as I got home, I handed in my notice for a job I really enjoyed but which left me no time to write.

The course in question would fall a few weeks before I started my job teaching creative writing and couldn’t fail to fill me with ideas for that. Apart from attending pertinent talks and workshops and spending time with other writing devotees, I would actually write. This is something I don’t do too much of when my children are home for the summer holidays and it would mean that I had an outside chance of finishing the first draft of my second book while I was there. Without the course, the first draft would drift into September and September, as I’ve opined in a previous post, is my New Year. Once my children were back at school I’d love to be on stage two, making a story from the set of scenes dropped onto the pages a few weeks earlier.

My dilemma is this: I don’t have the finances or the time to do both the editing and the course. I have to decide whether the editing is essential to selling my first book. Would it open my eyes to its failings and give renewed vigour to making changes? I am not one for giving up and whatever an editor advised, I would consider it carefully and then act upon it.

Or, should I focus on book two, crack on with its first draft, have something else to show a potential publisher and learn something new in the process? 


Whether you’re a booky type, published or wannabe writer or one of my trusted followers, your opinions are all equally valid. Somebody not in this crazily infuriating, yet fizzy and exciting world of publishing, may just see the answer really clearly. Can I ask, what would you do?