The R-word

So I thought I'd told the whole and unvarnished tale of my route to publication but searching on an old email account for the word 'rejection' I discovered a step I had wholly forgotten. I really haven't the slightest memory of it. Perhaps I was drunk... who knows? 

In 2007 at 1:05 AM I apparently sent a query to the Nelson Literary Agency that ran thusly (with small name edits):

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Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 1:05 AM
To: query@nelsonagency.com
Subject: Query

Dear Kristin,

                        I'm looking for an agent to represent a fantasy novel I have recently completed. I have appended a very brief synopsis.

I'm a 37 year old scientist. A US and UK citizen, currently living in the UK.

In 2006 I've had stories published in the following paying (to various degrees) magazines:

Fantasy Magazine (4), Fictitious Force Magazine (2), Chick Flicks (8&9), The 5th Review
(upcoming), Forgotten Worlds (upcoming), Espresso Fiction, and OG's
Speculative Fiction Magazine (upcoming), Ascent Aspirations Magazine
(upcoming). 

All under the pen name '**********'

Cheers,

               Mark Lawrence

 

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Novel:  Prince of Thorns

The book has a fair bit of inspiration from 'A Clockwork Orange'. It's set in a post-apocalypse that has wound its way out of the stone-age up to a quasi-medieval era with elements of old technology in the backdrop as well as low-key magic.

Our 'hero' is an ultra-violent amoral fourteen year old, something of an evil genius, very charismatic, leading a band of older men on a rampage. The story is told entirely from his point of view, in the first person. The 'Clockwork Orange' inspiration makes itself felt when, after having painted our MC as black as can be, he wins the reader over, mainly through force of character. We get to follow him and his band through an adventure where his random mayhem becomes focused on getting even with his father (one of many minor kings vying for the vacant empire throne) and becoming a power himself.

As the story develops, other factors become apparent and our MC discovers he is being manipulated by various interested parties.

The original inspiration reappears at the end with parallels to the coming of age story.

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The reply came 4 days later!

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January 15, 2007                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                    

Dear Author:                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                    

Thank you so much for sending the Nelson Literary Agency your query.             

                                                                                                                                    

           We’d like to apologize in advance for this standard rejection letter. The volume of queries as of late has been too overwhelming to personalize our response anymore.  Rest assured, we do read every query letter carefully and although your work sounds intriguing, we’re sorry to say that we don't believe we are the right agency for you.                             

                                                                                                                                   

You deserve an enthusiastic representative, so we recommend that you pursue other agents. After all, it just takes one "yes" and with so many different opinions out there, you could easily find the  right match.                                                                                         

                                                                                                             

Good luck with all your publishing endeavors.                                                        

                                                                                                                                   

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Now this is in absolutely no way a poke at the agency in question. They are very successful and have many clients including a good number that have sold way more books than I have. Their website asked for a synopsis, they got one, politely told me it wasn't something they were interested in and suggested I try elsewhere. It was, perhaps, a lousy synopsis - and the best book in the world will sound unappealing if you describe it poorly (and it looks suspiciously like I made it up as I typed it into the email at five past one in the morning!).

In any event I followed their advice - it just so happened that life got in the way and I didn't expect to succeed anyhow (it had just been an email on a late night whim), and so it took me nearly three more years to try again. I had after all only sold my first short story eight months earlier (for $31) and only after a bunch of rejections. I didn't seriously expect to sell a whole book.

What I'm doing here is offering encouragement by sharing the oft-repeated truism that experts often reject books that prove to sell well and that many of us under-estimate our own potential.

Additionally I'll note the lost opportunity on my part (I should have kept at it).

And finally I'll point out that since this exchange happened six months after an unknown UK writer called Joe Abercrombie got his first book on the shelves, it somewhat deflates the frequent accusations that I was inspired to copy his style. That would have required me to invest in a hardback by an unknown on the day of release, start writing at once and bang out a rip-off in 6 months then immediately query for it... then ignore it for ~3 years.

[this mini-rant brought to you courtesy of the fact I still see comments like this one from a blog a few days ago:

The serious problem of the writing is: Mark Lawrence has evidently copied the style of writing genius by the name of Joe Abercrombie. Unfortunately, he must have lost a few pieces in the process of copy-pasting, to the point of view of the story.  ]