If I take a look at my whole life from the past, excluding the first few years of a happy childhood and the following decade of my delighted adolescent ages, I can say that the rest of my existence – starting at about 20 years old till now – was woven with either obstacles or their aftermaths. My wholesome, endlessly pleasant contentment ended in 1994. Since then, black and white stripes consistently superimposed over each other. After almost a whole year that I spent in capt

The more I thought about self-publishing, the more I was tempted by it. The best thing I could get from it was the possibility of publishing both books - Girl, Taken and Неволя - at the same time. The appeal was very abundant and that was what I really wanted. What I definitely didn’t want was to waste another month or six. (Have you read the beginning of the story? Check out older blog posts here) I decided to terminate the contract with my agent on August 27th, 2017. We mut

The Summer of 2017 was about to pass the baton over to the upcoming Autumn. It was already August, signifying six months since I signed the contract and started working with the agent. The remaining eight publishers never responded at all. Unfortunately, the perception of time is not an absolute measure, it’s always being relative. To me, a period of a half a year without any progress seemed insurmountably long. I was losing my recently acquired philosophical patience. I bega

After the contract was signed, I impatiently awaited the next step. I could barely refrain from the desire to keep emailing my agent every day to remind her about myself and my literary work’s existence. Only four weeks later – and to my long-awaited bliss – my agent finally submitted my manuscript to thirteen publishing companies – all great names in the industry. Now, I had to wait and email my agent every six-to-eight weeks in regard to inquiring about possible rejections.

I hope you remember how hard it was for me to find a literary agent for my manuscript. (If not, please check my previous blog posts). My new literary agent’s plan was to pitch and submit my book, Girl, Taken, to publishing companies and negotiate a great deal. I imagined her as the middle person, as the bridge between myself with my literary work and a successful publication. During our initial and following phone conversations, she presented a pretty adequate and promising p

As an author, I thought I achieved the majority of my goals and wanted a literary agent to see them within my work as well. I needed to represent my work nicely, served on a beautiful plate like a highly desirable gourmet dish. I learned that a great pitch letter could add that exotic flavor and luxury. (If you have never read my previous blog posts, please read them before this one – it will make a lot more sense. It’s part #13) I realized that a pitch letter serves as a del