Why am I doing this?

Quite simply, I need your help!

After my mother, Kate, had finished writing the novel, she looked into getting it published. There followed a lot of rejection letters, and she became a little despondent about achieving her goal. One day, she asked me to read the novel and asked me to comment. I was surprised at how well written it was and told her so. We chatted about other ways to get it published and even looked into self-publishing, but she felt and wanted it to be traditionally published and continued with that path. I recall saying that I thought the novel lent itself to serialisation, but did not follow this up any further with her, but I did promise her that I would help in any way I could when I had the time.

A couple of publishers/agents did show interest in the novel, and there then followed a frenzied period of proofreading and final adjustments. The publishers were impressed by the work but felt that when it came to marketing the book, it would be better if it were written from a strong female perspective!

She was crestfallen. Were they asking her to rewrite the whole novel so it would appeal more to their target market? This she had not considered, nor was she about to! However, knowing my mother’s tenacious character,r I think she would have relented and the story would have been rewritten except that a prolonged and protracted illness got in the way and she died before going any further. So I’m left with her story and a promise I had made to her.

If enough people are interested in the story, then the publisher’s target market may be much larger than they realise. By getting in touch, I may be able to get them to reconsider, and you can help me keep my promise made to my mum.

Thank you