A Very Nice Rejection Letter

- Blurb -

6 April 2007Writing income for the year so far: minus 300' I feel that this might just be the year in which something happens. Then again it might not. But hope drives all writers on. ' It' s unlikely that you' ll know Chris Paling' s face or have heard his name. This is his diary of trying to make a living as a writer, through the typical career trajectory of what is deemed a ' mid-list novelist' . Publishing rule 6: there is no such thing as a ' low-list' novelist. In renumeration terms, writing is a career that often ends in disappointment and despair, and occasionally disgrace. Paling artfully explores what compels him and so many others to write - the battling joys and agonies of when that compulsion beds itself in one' s psyche, and a day without writing is a day wasted. A fascinating insight into the writing process, he tracks the need to write something new, or something old in a new way, something relevant, something that needs to be written when very little actually does, in search of that ever-elusive goal of being ' in print' . By turns moving, wry and brutally honest, A Very Nice Rejection Letter unveils the rewarding yet soul-baring life of a novelist. At its heart is a love letter to the art of writing but this delightful book is also a profound reflection on the forces that drive us all.