A good concept

So I’ve sent my manuscript!!! Hay!!

And within 24 hours the response came pouring down. No, no and no thank you. Not “Hay” anymore.

But I’ve decided not to go the self-crushing route because that would be just to soul destroying and I’m not ready to be beaten down yet.

Instead I’ve decided to analyse those rejections.

I received an answer within 24 hours, which means that agents are on the lookout for middle grade books. And that is a definite good thing.

They are however, not on the lookout for a dance book. Of course you might say, they would be if your book were any good, but that would be going down the self-crushing route mentioned earlier and I’m not willing to go down that road.

My feeling is that if agents answer that fast, is because not only they’re on the lookout but they know exactly what they want. They have a clear concept in their heads they want to work on.

Now the difficulty is which concept is it?

Now I came upon this article on the internet which said that a third of books listed for the Waterstone children books of the Year were detective books. Now that is a definite concept.

So could it be that vampires and wizards are out and the famous five are back? Maybe. I think it’s definitely worth a look.

Of course, now we all need to be very fast writers. But I think it’s possible. Natasha Ngan wrote her book “The Elites” in six weeks, right at the time of Hunger Games and she got in the loop of the dystopian post-apocalyptic heroes concept.

So I’m thinking if she did it why couldn’t I? Of course now I just need to write a good book. So can you.