I have a friend, Paige Nick, who wrote a novel (her first), called A Million Miles From Normal. (She also has a hilarious blog by the same name.) She gave it to two publishers. Both offered to publish it. In fact, she got a two-book deal. So that sort of thing does happen.

More common is a long litany of rejections, such as I am starting to compile.

I wrote a children's story, called The Illustrious Mr. Blimp. I think it's rather sweet, and has a clever little idea around which the story is written. You can have a look at what I mean in the books section on this website. I asked the talented Katrin Coetzer and Charl Edwards to help me illustrate it and lay it out, and then I started sending it to publishers. It's probably two years since I wrote the story, eighteen months since it was illustrated and just over a year since I started looking for a publisher.

You can follow the success (or lack thereof) of that pursuit in the posts that will follow. Any sympathy, criticism or words of wisdom are welcomed.