Blessing in disguise...
So I'm sat here thinking to myself… What do I actually put on this Blog Page?
The Blog page I hasten to add that I pestered Toby (one of the talents behind this awesome website) to do for me. I thought it was a good idea to have one on my website – albeit now that I'm sat here I’m wondering whether it was such a good idea after all.
Anyway - it's done now so I figure I may as well crack on with it. In all honesty if truth be told I did think that the Blog page would be a good way of keeping in touch with all of you and also keep you posted on the progress of Ar' Back Yard.
For those of you who are new to acknowledging Ar' Back Yard won't know - but we were due to originally launch the book in September. It is now going to be early 2008.
However as this is my first publication and therefore my first experience with dealing with the publishing world, it has been and continues to be one big learning curve. The date originally given to me was incorrect – or more to the point wasn’t communicated to the relevant departments so they had apparently not set a launch date for the publication.
And to be fair, I could still release the book this year in December which my publishers were very enthusiastic about doing in order to capitalize on Christmas sales as they put it. However I reminded them that I am not J. K. Rowling with whom if she was to release a book then she would then clearly make millions right?
It is my first novel and it is also very important (and essential) that I make Ar’ Back Yard a success story. Ah I hear you saying to yourselves that he wants those J. K. Rowling millions after all… Well it’s not like that at all – Honestly… I swear! Okay well maybe a little then eh.
No the reason why Ar’ Back Yard is so important to me is that for me it is only the beginning of the story. Therefore the timing and the publicity campaign that I will do for the book has to be timed just right. And if I was to simply release it in the middle of the season of madness it would in my mind simply drown and go unnoticed. So I figured I’ve waited this long I may as well wait a little longer.
As you will have read on the home page I have written three books that complete Ar’ Back Yard. Therefore I am hoping that when you read it, it will intrigue you and leave you wanting more.
So now you’re wondering why I didn’t just release the story as one book. Well to be honest sometimes waiting a long time for something can be a blessing in disguise. You see I originally started writing the story all the way back in 1999 – and it’s fair to say that it has gone through several changes along the way including another tale I've written based in Manchester – which will be the fourth book that I will publish (I will come back to why I mention this in a moments time)
You see - for anyone who has travelled the publishing route will be well aware just how frustrating it can be.
I mean I was so naïve that I honestly believed that all I had to do was simply put pen to paper and then that would be it. I figured that I would quite simply send out 10 proposals to literary agents and then they’d all be banging down my door with offers… Let the bidding wars begin I thought smugly to myself.
Christ – I couldn’t have been further from the truth if you sent me to the other side of the universe ten times over. It is a complete and utter nightmare of a journey getting here – well we are in 2007 now and the book won’t be published now until 2008 – so only 9 years in the making eh.
However throughout that journey on which I almost gave up on, on more than one occasion, I did discover that as I said before, time can be a blessing in disguise. It really is true.
You see the reason I mentioned the fourth book I’ve written was because a few years ago I sent that book to a professional reader who would give feedback and criticism on the story I had called Paralysed Souls. So I sent it away and waited for a couple of weeks eagerly full of hope and optimism as I was sure that this guy would absolutely love what I had done and the passion I thrown into the story would obviously win him over.
Again how wrong was I? About the only positive thing he said was his words about how he could so how much passion and effort had gone into the work. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the story so much, he just had alot of other issues with it (plus I also don’t think he read all of it as he commented on one thing that I had put into the story to throw the reader which he said didn’t make sense… well it would have if he’d read all of the damn thing)
Anyway – enough whinging - I’m babbling a little here aren’t I? So after all of his harsh words I sat there moping and sulking about it.
That was it – I was never going to write another thing again. His words haunted me, but the more I thought about what he’d said the more sense it started making to me. And one of the things he’d said was (he didn’t know that I’d already written Ar’ Back Yard) that for a first novel it was huge and that no publisher would touch it.
He suggested that I write some short stories that would stand a much better chance of being published. So the more I thought about his criticism and the point of writing a story that wasn’t so big the more I began to think about the story that had sat in the bottom of my wardrobe somewhere rotting away for the last couple of years with my numerous trainers (also rotting away)
The fact was that Ar’ Back Yard had even more words than Paralysed Souls. So I rooted around and finally found it and a read through it… again. Only this time I read it taking on board everything this guy who’d shattered my dreams had said – and you know what?
He was right. I hate to admit it, but after all that’s what I paid him for. Everything he’d said now made sense and made me realise that for as much enthusiasm and passion I possessed I need to channel that into creating a more solid story that would entice the reader and draw them into the world I wanted to create.
So the re-writes began and I broke the story into the three separate stories which now works so much better. Not only that, but if it hadn’t been for the fact Ar’ Back Yard was the first to be published it would have meant that all these great new ideas I have for After the Rain and then finally Full Intensions would never have materialised.
Throughout the learning process of finally working with a publishing house, editors, typesetters, etc I have been given the insight into just how process of taking a story finally into print actually works. And throughout that process I have absorbed all of the information thrown at me and through that I have just completed the re-writes on After the Rain which without blowing my own trumpet has now become so much better for it and it is a fantastic read.
Especially as by this point you will have a real insight in the back stories of some of the characters with more characters to be introduced.
Hence why, sometimes, waiting a long time for something to finally happen really can be a blessing in disguise. If like me you've written a story that you truly believe in and know no matter what anybody tells you or how many rejection letters you collect along the way and you’re looking to get your first book published, then you should really keep checking out my Blogs.
Sign up to the mailing list and I will keep you updated on not only the progress of the book, but I will fill you in with more details of my background, the back story where Ar’ Back Yard was formed and also some helpful tips of sites that now exist which didn’t before and which will be of use to any new budding authors out there.
That’s it for now. Feel free to contact me and ask any questions as I’ll always be happy to respond. I’ll let you know when the next Blog is posted so you can check it out.
Take it easy as always.
Anwar