Thursday 29 June 2017

Waiting for an Agent to respond? How long is too long? When do you move on?

I read a post where an author waited 8 months to hear back from a literary agent. Whilst that made me feel a little sad, we have no choice but to be patient, suck it up and deal with the fact that most literary agent receive so many submissions it is going to take a long time for our chosen agent to get down through the pile to our submitted manuscript. I had a look back to see how long ago I submitted my manuscript to Corvisiero Literary Agency. My initial contact happened only about 10 weeks ago, which is not too long. Corvisiero Literary Agency offer international representation and cover a huge range of genres. They have the capability of matching an author with the publisher best suited to your work. Can’t wait to hear back from them. My enthusiasm has only grown as the weeks have crawled by, causing me to crumble and made second contact by email - which I am sure is a no-no! Too late, I hit the send button.


So how long is too long? Well… how badly do you want to get published? If you want it badly enough, you will be prepared to wait. To endure the long haul. Regardless of how long it takes. 

So for me, the answer to the question, ‘How long is too long?’ is… 


I’m not dead yet!!


Get Dan O'Sullivan's Trilogy on Amazon

Book 1 - The Fallen
Book 2 - The Guardians
Book 3 - Child of a Guardian and of the Free





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Tuesday 6 June 2017

Waiting to hear from a Literary Agent or Publisher? Here is a handy "To Do" list to keep you busy while you wait.

What do you do when you are waiting for an agent to respond to your manuscript submission enquiry and even a few weeks seems to take forever? When you so badly want to hear from your first chosen agent, but the silence is deafening? When the overwhelming desire to email in and ask if they received your enquiry is barely held in check by general politeness?

Here is what I am doing whilst waiting to hear from Justin Wells of Corvisiero Literary Agency.


  1. I have set a new record on how many times a day a person can look for an email from an agent.
  2. I have had my laptop die, making me restore entirely from my backup. Grrrrrr. On the upside, my five year old laptop seems to be working better than the one year old laptop every worked.
  3. Started three blogs, one on fantasy adventure, one on getting published and one on self-publishing. Never half do things.
  4. Updated my Website www.osullidan.com. Now it’s almost too cool to view.
  5. Updated my Amazon Author page. Mainly because I seem to be two people on Amazon and the other Dan O’Sullivan is, I am certain, a lot brighter than me judging by what he is publishing. 😉
  6. Posting on Twitter and several Facebook pages. 
  7. I am now on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so you may now address me as “You Instant Twit Face”.
  8. Sending out info to those on my email mailing list. They love me. Truly. I’ll just keep on telling myself that. 💜💛💚💙
  9. Dusted off exercise bike and ab-roller. Stared at them miserably for a long time. Decided the only way to stay on an exercise bike is watch old re-runs of Star Trek. It works!
  10. Watching an entire series of Dr Who. Sitting up late each night with extremely freaked-out daughter after watching Dr Who. 😨
  11. Continuing with book 4 of my original self-published series. This is my favourite thing to do by a long shot.
Here are some other suggestions:

  • Start a new blog on something stupid like “50 ways to annoy your sleeping cat when you are bored.” Include safety tips and suggestions for protective clothing.
    • Dust off your exercise bike and ab-roller. The exercise bike is possibly that contraption in your back room that has two handle bars, one generally used to hang ironed clothing and one to hang un-ironed clothing. Do not use the bike, just put it in the lounge room to impress your friends.
    • Watch an entire series of Dr Who. Or Star Trek. Or Frasier, or All Creatures Great and Small.
    • Start writing a new book in a genre you don’t particularly go for. For me, that would be romance.
    • Try for a world record in chocolate consumption
    I highly recommend the chocolate solution.

    Get Dan O'Sullivan's Trilogy on Amazon

    Book 1 - The Fallen
    Book 2 - The Guardians
    Book 3 - Child of a Guardian and of the Free



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    Sunday 4 June 2017

    Ignoring the draft. Retaining the concept.

    First, I typed a one sentence idea for each chapter. It was exhilarating! I was delighted with the story line, the adventure, the very concept of a fantasy where the line between good and evil choices becomes increasingly blurred, a series called Daoine Maithe (that’s Gaelic for The Good People) where it becomes questionable who the good people really are, regardless of titles.

    I went back to the start, and for each one-line “chapter”, I expanded the text until it encompassed every idea I wanted to include in that particular chapter.

    Once I had this draft, I began writing The Guardians, Daoine Maithe Book 1.

    From that moment on, I entirely ignored my draft. The story rushed from my head and raced across the pages. From the very first paragraphs, I deviated so far from my draft there was no point glancing back. The story itself flew forward at such a pace and in such unexpected directions that my fingers were flat out keeping up. And the finished result, though a world away from my original draft, was even more than the spectacular adventure I hoped it would be.

    What did I retain from my original plan? The concept. As the series progressed through Books 1, 2 and 3, the characters only increased in fascination and desirability.

    Get Dan O'Sullivan's Trilogy on Amazon

    Book 1 - The Fallen
    Book 2 - The Guardians
    Book 3 - Child of a Guardian and of the Free


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