A work in progress...5

It's been a week now since I sent the agent the first three chapters of my manuscript. On the day I dropped it in, there was a timely article published in the Guardian, subject: 'How to make a book'. It claimed 100,000 books are published in the UK each year. The article covered the whole process of publishing from the author having the initial idea in a pub, to its writing and eventual publication. Here's an excerpt:

"The hunger to be published gnaws powerfully enough at a sufficient number of people that between 30 and 40 unsolicited proposals arrive every single day at the London offices of the American literary agency Janklow & Nesbit. The "slush pile" is not an efficient route to literary fame: Claire Paterson, one of Janklow's two primary UK agents, found only one of her current 40-odd clients that way. Gallingly perhaps for all those would-be published authors."

I know it takes time, it's not like a job application where you expect to hear a reply pretty much straight away from a prospective employer and maybe my MS will get read - who knows?