Jo Cotterill

It’s a funny ol’ business, publishing. Flipping heck, it can be tough. And I DON’T just mean the parties 😉 Recently, I’ve been floundering a bit. Having finished two major projects and sent them out, I’m feeling kind of adrift. There’s no news yet, and there may not be for a while, but the rejections are already trickling in: drip, drip, drip… I’m used to rejections, of course – all authors are – but this time it feels different. It’s harder than ever to get a book published, especially for children. Author friends who have made very reasonable livings from their books are starting to struggle. And I’m struggling too. I still have ideas galore – and I don’t believe I’ve lost my ability to write – but somehow, I’m not producing what publishers want.

And that’s kind of frustrating. And worrying, to put it bluntly.

So I’m starting something new. Two new things, actually, both completely different from anything I’ve done before, and both exciting in their own way. One of them involves working with someone else (and is REALLY different in an exciting and terrifying way), and one of them is a project all my own – a project I started a year ago and abandoned. But I’ve dug it out again, and it’s making me laugh, and it’s fun and easy, and I think it’s just what I need.

Neither of these new creative projects is a book for children 😉 but both are completely under my control, and I hope to keep them that way. Their success or failure depends pretty much 100% on me, and you know what? I think I like it that way. I’m getting pro-active 🙂 which suits me just fine.

So you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit secretive about my work for a while. I like having a new and shiny idea that I can hug to myself while it’s in development, and these two ARE new and VERY shiny. When I can, I’ll spill, I promise. But not until they’re ready.

In the meantime, of course, I keep my fingers crossed that one of my children’s books is picked up VERY soon because I loved writing them and I would dearly love to see them published! I had some positive news about one of them about a month ago, but there’s nothing confirmed yet, so again, I will have to stay schtum for a while longer!