‘It took me two years to write my first book, To Gain What’s Lost, and I was very naive about publishing or what I needed to do. I came close to signing with a vanity publisher because I didn’t know this wasn’t the normal way of things. But then I did some more research and found out there were publishers out there who didn’t ask authors for money!
‘So then I did the next thing new writers do. I posted the first three chapters of my novel to every big publisher in the world. I wasted another two years waiting for replies I never received. What I didn’t know was that publishers have slushpiles. I eventually realised that my parcels must have all ended up on these piles, never to be seen again.
‘Then I heard about literary agents. Apparently, they got you out of the slushpiles and on to editors’ desks. But I was unlucky enough to sign with an American agent who knew nothing about sagas set in England, and he sent my book to publishers who would never have wanted my type of story. I received rejection after rejection, and soon enough I rejected that particular agent, too!