As I noted in one of my earlier post, this novel represented a number of new directions for me as a writer. And so these new directions continue. I was contacted recently by an agent who liked the book but thought it could be even better with a few changes. I agreed, and set to rereading it to find just where those changes could be made.
Now, first of all THIS was different, because although I have had three agents for other books, none of them had ever asked me to rewrite something. I considered this, then, an improvement. What's more, this agent talked to me for over an hour on the phone about the book. This was different too. And gratifying. Because if someone is going to represent this book, I want them to like it and be interested in it, not JUST want to make a buck off it, and that hour-long conversation suggested that she was exactly that.
But what is most gratifying is that once I did reread the piece I discovered that I liked it. And what I mean by that is that it was exactly the kind of book I would have been happy to have read. This may sound like bragging, but it's not. That I have written a book that I would have been glad to have discovered does not mean that it is necessarily a great book. It does not mean it will be published. It does not mean, in fact, that anyone else will like it. But it is gratifying nonetheless that I would have liked it if I had found it on the shelves instead of my desk drawer. You are your first and last audience, after all, and if you don't like, how can you expect anyone else to?
So mission accomplished. Now, to rewriting.
