Select or Delete?

I arrive to the deafening barks of my friend’s new Belle, the beautiful black basset hound. Clarice peals as I enter, 'it goes on for three weeks!' I look down at Belle who is wearing new-born pampers. An innovation Clarice's Spanish lodger introduced when he brought his own dog to stay, where apparently nappies for bitches in heat are quite normal.

The one person who could empathise with my lodger selection dilemma is Clarice, a veteran of the landlady class. ‘Oh, the Latvian,’ she said without hesitation. That doesn’t help my guilt about the lovely girl though, perhaps it’s my fear of reverting to mother hen that’s making me lean towards the man with the rucksack. You see, lovely girl wants the room because it’s got so much wardrobe space for all her stuff. I’m giving myself until this evening, so that I can take all of us out of our misery.

Meanwhile, I am becoming no stranger to rejection myself. I am reminded that it is all part of the publishing process, but still doesn’t make it any more palatable.

With one lifeline left, I recently had a positive response to the book summary from a new agent and sent them the draft I finished in November 2012. So much has changed since then, that when I started reading it again, there was so much to be cut and tightened, I wish I hadn’t sent it. It's too long at 131,071 words. Even though I've written and read it ten times, the more I do it, the sparser I want it. Those writing gurus say it's all about re-writing and it is. Patience, however, was never my strongest point.

That will be three agents and one publisher who've read it in six months. In first-time publishing terms that, alledgedly, is a miracle. And had I got it right the first time, that would have been too brilliant for words, in fact I wouldn't be writing a blog about being a novice landlady, because I wouldn't be renting out bedrooms and I'd be writing my second novel somewhere with a sea view.

So now I’m on the receiving end of the selection process from two agents who haven't got back to me. Maybe their rejection policy is silence. Admittedly, the two other responses I've received have included critiques, with good advice and ultimately not dispiriting. But I’m still not published…..

I've heard enough good news of online publishing to regard it as a safe back-up, initially, it seemed like a cop out, but in nearly two years since I started my book, online publishing has taken on a new respect. I was advised by an accountant to do it in the first place, he said, 'why would you want to get 5% per book sold when you could get 70% online?' A very good question, but then, where would the reviews, interviews, signings and book tours come in?

A novice writer is apparently never, ever, ever to imagine such things. If a friend tells you she's picked out what you're going to wear on Mariella's Book Show, thank her for her belief in you and then dismiss it immediately. Ironically, said friend didn't like the book when she read it, she said it was too descriptive and prefers books with a lot of action, where people get killed and there's a bit of a mystery. Pick your test readers!