Now, I'm
used to rejection ( link to den post ) but this time the response from my agent
was exactly what I'd hoped for:
"…you've made something really special… This (picture book text) feels like a perfect idea
- it just slots into place."
Yay! Happy tail wagging dance with the dog. We could be on to a winner!
But …
An editor told my agent that my text had exactly the same theme as
a picture book the publisher had already commissioned, adding
"This is beautifully written though – what a shame!"
Pause for deep sigh and wry smile...
Someone had beaten me to it - not for the first time and not, I'm sure, for the last time. Sometimes, topics and themes seem to be in the
air, a zeitgeist that makes people think along the same lines
simultaneously. Perhaps our ideas have been sparked by the same programme on
TV, the same news story, cute picture or clip or post on Facebook - who knows?
Serendipity?
Only if you get there first. And, of course, there's always hope that you will…
But if you don't, it's a case of DARN-it-dipity.
Has it happened to you?
Jane's delighted to announce Nosy Crow's serendipitous pairing of her latest picture book text Who woke the baby? with one of her favourite illustrators, Charles Fuge.
